Several imaging modalities have been employed to examine schistosomes and monitor schistosome-induced pathology. Ultrasound is a noninvasive imaging method that has long been used in the laboratory and in the field to evaluate pathological changes, notably fibrosis, that arise as a consequence of the host response to schistosome eggs lodging in a variety of tissues. Ultrasonography has been wid...

A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms required for schistosomes to take up glucose, the major nutritional source exploited by these blood flukes from their mammalian hosts and the subsequent metabolism required to fuel growth and fecundity, can provide new avenues for developing novel interventions for the control of schistosomiasis. This aspect of parasitism is particularly import...

Schistosomiasis is an important tropical disease affecting approximately 200 million people worldwide. Because of its chronicity and robust immunomodulatory activity, the effects of schistosomes on other diseases, such as allergies, autoimmunity, and infectious diseases, have been studied extensively in both epidemiological and experimental settings. In this paper, we summarize the beneficial a...

Experimental studies of parasite transmission can help to elucidate life cycles, measure the success of infective stages under different conditions, or test the efficacy of vaccination or other forms of protection against parasitic infection. By combining the results of experiments on a particular parasite taxon, one may also answer questions such as how experimental infection doses are chosen,...

skin test trials with standards s. mansoni antigen have been undertaken inn iran to determine the reliability of this method for the misdiagnosis of urinary bilharziasis and the factors which interfere with the results obtained, such as the presence of animal schistosomes and human infection with intestinal helminthiasis.five groups of people, namely, known infected caws of urinary bilharziasis...

Schistosomes have a well developed nervous system that coordinates virtually every activity of the parasite and therefore is considered to be a promising target for chemotherapeutic intervention. Neurotransmitter receptors, in particular those involved in neuromuscular control, are proven drug targets in other helminths but very few of these receptors have been identified in schistosomes and li...

Schistosomes are intravascular helminths that infect over 200 million people worldwide. Deposition of eggs by adult schistosomes stimulates Th2 responses to egg antigens and induces granulomatous pathology that is a hallmark of schistosome infection. Paradoxically, schistosomes require host immune function for their development and reproduction and for egress of parasite eggs from the host. To ...

BACKGROUND Schistosomiasis is one of the most widely distributed parasitic diseases in the world. Schistosoma japonicum, a zoonotic parasite with a wide range of mammalian hosts, is one of the major pathogens of this disease. Although numerous studies on schistosomiasis japonica have been performed using laboratory animal models, systematic comparative analysis of whole-genome expression profil...