Immune responses against Plasmodium parasites, the causative organisms of malaria, are traditionally dichotomized into pre-erythrocytic and blood-stage components. Whereas the central role of cellular responses in pre-erythrocytic immunity is well established, protection against blood-stage parasites has generally been ascribed to humoral responses. A number of recent studies, however, have hig...

An immunochromatographic test (ICT Malaria P. f.) based on the detection of Plasmodium falciparum HRP-II antigen was evaluated in Gujarat state, India. Whole blood of 148 clinically suspected malaria patients was tested blind by microscopy and ICT simultaneously. Compared with the examination of Giemsa stained thick blood films, ICT test was 99% specific and 92% efficient. It was 100% sensitive...

OBJECTIVE The objective of the present study was to determine whether saponin hemolysis could improve microscopic detection of malaria parasites in human blood, since it has been previously reported that the technique has been used to enrich Plasmodium falciparum culture to >or=90% parasitemia. MATERIAL AND METHODS Blood samples from suspected malaria cases were first examined in routine thic...

Parasitism has been argued as one o1 the major costs o1 breeding sociality in birds. Mowever, there is no clear evidence 1or an increased parasite pressure associated with the evolutionary transition 1rom solitary to colonial breeding. I used the pairwise comparative method to test whether colonial bird species incur in a greater risK o1 in1ection and i1 they must to 1ace with a greater diversi...

Currently, the only method for identifying infective hosts with Leishmania infantum to the vector Lutzomyia longipalpis is xenodiagnosis. More recently, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) has been used to model human reservoir competence by assuming that detection of parasite DNA indicates the presence of viable parasites for infecting vectors. Since this assumption has not been prov...

Blood-stage replication of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum occurs via schizogony, wherein daughter parasites are formed by a specialized cytokinesis known as segmentation. Here we identify a parasite protein, which we name P. falciparum Merozoite Organizing Protein (PfMOP), as essential for cytokinesis of blood-stage parasites. We show that, following PfMOP knockdown, parasites...

Current procedures for diagnosing Leishmania parasites from patients involve invasive and dangerous tissue aspiration. We have developed a non-invasive and highly sensitive microculture method that can isolate parasites from the buffy coat of the patient's peripheral blood. The parasites were cultured in 96-well culture plates. Nineteen parasitologically proven visceral leishmaniasis (VL) patie...

BACKGROUND In sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of malaria parasitemia in blood donors varies from 0.6% to 50%. Although the burden of TTM in malaria-endemic countries is unknown, it is recommended that all donated blood is screened for malaria parasites. This study aimed to establish the incidence of TTM and identify a suitable screening test. METHODS Pregnant women, children, and immunocom...

Blood morphology in dogs infected with intracellular parasites of the genera Babesia and Ehrlichia was examined. The parasites were detected in peripheral blood smears stained by the May-Grünwald-Giemsa method. During the parasitic invasion, a decrease in thrombocyte counts was observed. This was connected with forming platelet aggregates. It was noted that the number of giant platelets simulta...

Detection and analysis of pathogens by PCR plays an important role in infectious disease research. The value of these studies would be diminished if nuclear material from dead parasites were found to remain in circulation for extended periods and thus result in positive amplification. This possibility was tested in experimental rodent malaria infections. Blood samples were obtained from infecte...