[leish-l] Fwd: Articles found by RefScout 2005/11/23 - 2005/47

jeffreyj at usp.br jeffreyj at usp.br
Thu Dec 1 19:08:40 BRST 2005


    Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 00:59:53
    From: info at refscout.com

New!

Have a look at our new tool, the RefScout‘s PDF-Manager (PDFM)! The RefScout‘s
PDFM will revolutionize your life with PDF files!

Simply let your PDF files be organized by the RefScout‘s PDFM in a table and get
direct link to your local copy. In addition, the RefScout‘s PDFM will alert you
each time the NLM PubMed updates information concerning your specific
reference!
Get your free 2 months trial version now at RefScout’s PDF-Manager.





This is RefScout-Newsletter 47/2005.






REQUEST: [ leishmaniasis ]

(17 articles match this request)



PMID: 16203020
 

TITLE: Field evaluation of a fast anti-Leishmania antibody detection assay in
Ethiopia.

AUTHORS: A Hailu, G J Schoone, E Diro, A Tesfaye, Y Techane, T Tefera, Y Assefa,
A Genetu, Y Kebede, T Kebede, H D F H Schallig

AFFILIATION: Institute for Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, Jimma Road,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.

REFERENCE: Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2006 Jan 100(1):48-52

A fast agglutination screening test (FAST) for the detection of 
Leishmania antibodies in human serum samples was evaluated under harsh 
field conditions in northern Ethiopia. Test performance was compared 
with a standard serological test, namely the direct agglutination test (
DAT), and with parasitology. In total, 103 suspected cases were 
recruited for the study. Based on parasitological examination, 49 
patients were confirmed of having visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and the 
other 54 suspected cases were parasitologically negative. Field 
evaluation of FAST was possible in blood samples of 89 patients. FAST 
had 4 false negative results and 13 false positive results. DAT had 2 
false negative results and 20 false positive results. A good degree of 
agreement (86.9%) was observed between FAST and DAT (kappa value 0.73). 
In this field-based evalauation, the sensitivity and specificity of FAST
 were found to be 91.1% (95% CI 77.9-97.1) and 70.5% (95% CI 54.6-82.8
), respectively, compared with 95.3% (95% CI 82.9-99.2) and 62.3% (95% 
CI 47.9-74.9) for DAT. FAST had a high predictive value of a negative 
test, demonstrating that FAST could be utilised to exclude rapidly non-
VL patients from a large population of suspects with fever and 
splenomegaly in endemic areas.








PMID: 16198385
 

TITLE: Atypical American visceral leishmaniasis caused by disseminated
Leishmania amazonensis infection presenting with hepatitis and adenopathy.

AUTHORS: J A Aleixo, E T Nascimento, G R Monteiro, M Z Fernandes, A M O Ramos, M
E Wilson, R D Pearson, S M B Jeronimo

AFFILIATION: Department of Biochemistry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do
Norte, CP 1624, Natal, RN, 59072-970, Brazil.

REFERENCE: Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2006 Jan 100(1):79-82

Leishmania amazonensis is widely recognised as a cause of cutaneous 
leishmaniasis in Latin America, but it can also disseminate to produce 
atypical visceral leishmaniasis with hepatitis and lymphadenopathy. The 
patient, an 8-year-old Brazilian boy, presented with a febrile illness 
and hepatosplenomegaly, elevated liver enzymes and generalised 
adenopathy. Serological tests using antigens of L. chagasi, the typical 
cause of visceral leishmaniasis in Latin America, were inconclusive. 
Leishmania amazonensis was eventually isolated in a culture of a lymph 
node. The patient recovered fully after treatment with meglumine 
antimoniate. As this case illustrates, L. amazonensis produces a 
spectrum of disease that includes atypical American visceral 
leishmaniasis with evidence of hepatocellular injury and generalised 
lymphadenopathy.




PMID: 16154167
 

TITLE: Isolation of Leishmania tropica from an Ethiopian cutaneous leishmaniasis
patient.

AUTHORS: Asrat Hailu, Trentina Di Muccio, Tamrat Abebe, Mesfin Hunegnaw, Piet A
Kager, Marina Gramiccia

AFFILIATION: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and
Parasitology (DMIP), Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 9086, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.

REFERENCE: Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2006 Jan 100(1):53-8

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in the Old World is caused mainly by three 
species of Leishmania: L. major, L. tropica and L. aethiopica, and 
sporadically by L. infantum and L. donovani. In Ethiopia, zoonotic 
cutaneous leishmaniasis, caused by L. aethiopica, is a major public 
health problem affecting thousands of people in the highlands. By 
contrast, little is known about the existence and epidemiology of CL due
 to L. tropica. In this report, we provide the first well-documented 
case of CL in Ethiopia caused by L. tropica. The patient acquired the 
infection in Awash valley of the Ethiopian Rift Valley (northeastern 
Ethiopia), where Phlebotomus sergenti and P. saevus have previously been
 found infected by L. tropica. Using the isoenzyme electrophoresis 
technique, the isolate was found to belong to a variant of L. tropica 
zymodeme MON-71, one of the new zymodemes found in Ethiopia from P. 
sergenti in the same region so far. The epidemiological implications of 
the finding are discussed.




PMID: 16297295
 

TITLE: HIV-1 infection, visceral leishmaniasis, Koch's chest and tuberculous
meningitis in the same patient - a case report.

AUTHORS: K Pandey, P K Sinha, V N R Das, N Kumar, S M Hassan, N Verma, C S Lal,
S Bimal, P Das, S K Bhattacharya

AFFILIATION: Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (ICMR),
Agam Kuan, P.O. Gulzarbagh, Patna - 800007, Bihar, India.

REFERENCE: Ann Trop Med Parasitol 2005 Dec 99(8):807-11




PMID: 16299292
 

TITLE: Chronic Leishmania donovani Infection Promotes Bystander CD8+-T-Cell
Expansion and Heterologous Immunity.

AUTHORS: Rosalind Polley, Stephanie L Sanos, Sara Prickett, Ashraful Haque, Paul
M Kaye

AFFILIATION: Immunology and Infection Unit, Department of Biology, University of
York, PO Box 373, York YO10 5YW, United Kingdom. pmk2 at york.ac.uk.

REFERENCE: Infect Immun 2005 Dec 73(12):7996-8001

It has been proposed that long-lived memory T cells generated by 
vaccination or infection reside within a memory compartment that has a 
finite size. Consequently, in a variety of acute infection models 
interclonal competition has been shown to lead to attrition of 
preexisting memory CD8(+) T cells. Contrary to expectations, therefore, 
we found that chronic Leishmania donovani infection of Listeria-immune 
mice results in heightened protection against subsequent Listeria 
challenge. This protection was associated with bystander expansion of 
Listeria-specific CD8(+) T cells and a bias in these cells toward a 
central memory T-cell phenotype with an enhanced capacity for gamma 
interferon production. We propose that splenomegaly, which is 
characteristic of visceral leishmaniasis and other tropical infections, 
may help promote heterologous immunity by resetting the size of the 
memory compartment during chronic infection.




PMID: 16299331
 

TITLE: Regulation of Impaired Protein Kinase C Signaling by Chemokines in Murine
Macrophages during Visceral Leishmaniasis.

AUTHORS: Ranadhir Dey, Arup Sarkar, Nivedita Majumder, Suchandra Bhattacharyya
Majumdar, Kaushik Roychoudhury, Sandip Bhattacharyya, Syamal Roy, Subrata
Majumdar

AFFILIATION: Department of Microbiology, Bose Institute, P1/12, C.I.T. Scheme
VII-M, Kolkata-700 054, India. subrata at boseinst.ernet.in.

REFERENCE: Infect Immun 2005 Dec 73(12):8334-44

The protein kinase C (PKC) family regulates macrophage function involved
 in host defense against infection. In the case of Leishmania donovani 
infection, the impairment of PKC-mediated signaling is one of the 
crucial events for the establishment of parasite into the macrophages. 
Earlier reports established that C-C chemokines mediated protection 
against leishmaniasis via the generation of nitric oxide after 48 h. In 
this study, we investigated the role of MIP-1alpha and MCP-1 in the 
regulation of impaired PKC activity in the early hours (6 h) of 
infection. These chemokines restored Ca(2+)-dependent PKC activity and 
inhibited Ca(2+)-independent atypical PKC activity in L. donovani-
infected macrophages under both in vivo and in vitro conditions. 
Pretreatment of macrophages with chemokines induced superoxide anion 
generation by activating NADPH oxidase components in infected cells. 
Chemokine administration in vitro induced the migration of infected 
macrophages and triggered the production of reactive oxygen species. In 
vivo treatment with chemokines significantly restricted the parasitic 
burden in livers as well as in spleens. Collectively, these results 
indicate a novel regulatory role of C-C chemokines in controlling the 
intracellular growth and multiplication of L. donovani, thereby 
demonstrating the antileishmanial properties of C-C chemokines in the 
disease process.




PMID: 16236549
 

TITLE: Response to Silva et al.: Usefulness of PCR-based methods for screening
Leishmania in epidemiological studies.

AUTHORS: Fernanda S Oliveira, Reginaldo P Brazil, Raquel S Pacheco

AFFILIATION: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Instituto Oswaldo
Cruz, Fiocruz, 21040-900 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

REFERENCE: Trends Parasitol 2005 Dec 21(12):552-3

The detection of Leishmania in naturally infected rodents in endemic 
areas is of fundamental importance for defining these rodents as 
possible reservoir hosts of infection. The use of polymerase chain 
reaction in conjunction with molecular hybridization has provided 
important results that could lead to a better understanding of the 
natural history of leishmaniasis.








PMID: 16297287
 

TITLE: Usefulness of the direct agglutination test in the early detection of
subclinical Leishmania donovani infection: a community-based study.

AUTHORS: S Bimal, V N R Das, P K Sinha, A K Gupta, N Verma, A Ranjan, S K Singh,
A Sen, S K Bhattacharya, P Das

AFFILIATION: Division of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of
Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna - 800007, India.

REFERENCE: Ann Trop Med Parasitol 2005 Dec 99(8):743-9

The value of a direct agglutination test (DAT) in the detection of 
subclinical infections with Leishmania donovani has recently been 
investigated in the Indian state of Bihar, after the sensitivity and 
specificity of the test had been determined. When used to screen sera 
from 108 parasitologically confirmed cases of visceral leishmaniasis, 50
 patients with active, non-leishmanial infection, and 641 healthy 
controls living close to, or distant from, an endemic area, the test was
 found to be 91.7% sensitive and 100% specific if a titre of 1 : 800 was
 used as the threshold for seropositivity.During a longitudinal clinical
 study in a rural, VL-endemic area of the Indian state of Bihar, the 
test was used, with 1 : 800 set as the threshold titre, to determine the
 baseline prevalence of infection with L. donovani among villagers who, 
though showing no symptoms of VL, had recently been febrile for at least
 2 weeks. The 234 subjects of this study were either VL-case contacts [i
.e. members of households in which there were active or cured VL cases (
N=78)] or the members of control households with no cases or history of 
the disease (N=156). The results of DAT at the start of the study 
indicated that 49 (20.9%) of the subjects - 29 (37.2%) of the VL-case 
contacts and 20 (12.8%) of the other subjects - were seropositive and 
therefore probably had subclinical infections with L. donovani. During 
the subsequent 9 months of follow-up, however, only eight of the 
subjects found seropositive at the start of the study - seven (24.1%) of
 the seropositive case contacts but only one (5.0%) of the other 
seropositives - developed symptomatic VL, all by month 6 of the follow-
up. Compared with their neighbours, therefore, individuals who shared 
households with active or cured cases of VL appeared at greater risk not
 only of L. donovani infection (indicating focal transmission) but also 
of developing symptomatic disease once infected. Curiously, among the 
seropositive case contacts, those from the households that harboured 
active cases of VL at the baseline survey were less likely to develop 
symptomatic VL during the 9 months of follow-up than those from 
households that harboured only cured cases (18.8% v. 30.8%). The wide-
spread use of DAT could allow the detection and early treatment of 
latent L. donovani infections and so contribute to the elimination of VL
, at least as a public-health problem, from India.




PMID: 16249065
 

TITLE: Rapid diagnosis and genotyping of Leishmania isolates from cutaneous and
visceral leishmaniasis by microcapillary cultivation and polymerase chain
reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism of miniexon region.

AUTHORS: Mehmet S Serin, Kenan Daglioglu, Melahat Bagirova, Adil Allahverdiyev,
Soner Uzun, Zeynep Vural, Begum Kayar, Seda Tezcan, Mesut Yetkin, Gonul Aslan,
Gurol Emekdas, Fatih Koksal

AFFILIATION: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mersin University,
Mersin 33343, Turkey.

REFERENCE: Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis 2005 Nov 53(3):209-14

We have performed a combination of microcapillary cultivation method and
 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of amplified 
products by 1 single PCR of miniexon region of Leishmania for molecular 
diagnosis and genotyping of different Leishmania species isolated from 
cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and visceral leishmaniasis. We have 
analyzed 10 microcapillary cultivated isolates from cutaneous cases and 
5 microcapillary cultivated isolates from visceral cases (totally 15) by
 polymerase chain reaction-RFLP (PCR-RFLP). Of 10 isolates, 3 (30%) were
 genotyped as Leishmania infantum and 7 (70%) of 10 isolates were 
genotyped as Leishmania tropica from the microcapillary cultivated 
isolates of cutaneous cases. On the other hand, all 5 isolates (100%) 
were genotyped as L. infantum from microcapillary cultivated visceral 
cases. Our most interesting finding is the presence of 3 L. infantum 
isolates in CL cases without kala-azar history. Therefore, we suggest 
that further investigations must be done about this subject. On the 
other hand, we suggest the combination of microcapillary culture method 
and PCR-RFLP of miniexon region of leishmaniae can be used in routine 
laboratory experimentation because of their simple, cheap, and rapid 
benefits (within a week), whereas other different approaches offer a 
multitude of valid taxonomic characters for species identification.




PMID: 16027022
 

TITLE: TGF-beta-associated enhanced susceptibility to leishmaniasis following
intramuscular vaccination of mice with Leishmania amazonensis antigens.

AUTHORS: Roberta Olmo Pinheiro, Eduardo Fonseca Pinto, Janaina Ribeiro Correia
Lopes, Herbert Leonel Matos Guedes, Regina Ferro Fentanes, Bartira
Rossi-Bergmann

AFFILIATION: Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal
do Rio de Janeiro, 21949-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

REFERENCE: Microbes Infect 2005 Oct 7(13):1317-23

Leishmania amazonensis and Leishmania braziliensis are the main causal 
agents of anergic diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis and hyperergic mucosal
 leishmaniasis in man, respectively. In this work we demonstrate that 
intramuscular vaccination of BALB/c mice with whole antigens of L. 
amazonensis (LaAg) but not L. braziliensis (LbAg) results in increased 
susceptibility to cutaneous leishmaniasis. LaAg vaccination resulted in 
an increased capacity of the draining lymph nodes to produce IL-10 and 
TGF-beta during antigen recall responses. In vitro cultivation with LaAg
 but not LbAg induced increased apoptosis of CD8+ T cells. Following 
infection with L. amazonensis, LaAg-vaccinated mice produced 
significantly more TGF-beta and a higher serum IgG1/IgG2a antibody ratio
 compared with LbAg-vaccinated and non-vaccinated animals. The 
association of TGF-beta with enhanced susceptibility to infection was 
confirmed in mice co-vaccinated with LaAg and neutralizing anti-TGF-beta
 antibodies. Upon parasite challenge, these animals developed much 
smaller lesion sizes and parasite burdens, comparable with non-
vaccinated controls. The disease-promoting effect of LaAg vaccination is
 not a general event, as in contrast to BALB/c, the disease outcome in 
C57Bl/6 mice was unaltered. Together, these findings indicate that 
species-specific components of L. amazonensis activate overt TGF-beta 
production that predisposes more susceptible individuals to aggravated 
disease following vaccination.




PMID: 16046170
 

TITLE: Visceral leishmaniasis in organ transplant recipients: 11 new cases and a
review of the literature.

AUTHORS: Didier Basset, Françoise Faraut, Pierre Marty, Jacques Dereure, Eric
Rosenthal, Charles Mary, Francine Pratlong, Laurence Lachaud, Patrick Bastien,
Jean-Pierre Dedet

AFFILIATION: Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie and Centre National de
Référence des Leishmania, CHU de Montpellier, 163, rue Auguste-Broussonet,
34090 Montpellier, France.

REFERENCE: Microbes Infect 2005 Oct 7(13):1370-5

Eleven new cases of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) are reported in organ 
transplant patients in France. The epidemiological, clinical, biological
, diagnostic and therapeutic features are reviewed, based on these cases
 and 46 cases reported in the literature. VL was most commonly 
associated with renal transplantation (77% of the cases). Most patients 
were from Southern European countries. The main clinical symptom was 
fever. Leucopoenia and anaemia were the most frequent haematological 
disorders. Diagnosis was by direct finding of the parasite in smears of 
bone marrow (85.2%) or, by positive serology (90.9%). Without 
antileishmanial treatment, VL in transplant recipients was fatal. 
Treatment using either antimonials or amphotericine B gave similar cure 
rates of around 80% of the cases. But toxicity was higher for 
antimonials. Relapses occurred in 14.3%.




PMID: 16294187
 

TITLE: [Visceral leishmaniasis and sarcoidosis.]

AUTHORS: P Mulliez, C Croxo, J L Demory

AFFILIATION: Service de Pneumologie, Hôpital Saint Philibert, Lomme, France.

REFERENCE: Rev Mal Respir 2005 Sep 22(4):681-2




PMID: 16251521
 

TITLE: Polymorphism of slc11a1 (nramp1) gene and canine leishmaniasis in a
case-control study.

AUTHORS: E Sanchez-Robert, L Altet, A Sanchez, O Francino

AFFILIATION: the Servei Veterinari de Genètica Molecular, Facultat de VeterinÃ
ria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.

REFERENCE: J Hered 2005 Nov-Dec 96(7):755-8

The prevalence of canine leishmaniasis infection in an endemic area such
 as the Mediterranean basin (67%) is higher than the prevalence of the 
disease (10%), suggesting a role of host genetics related to the outcome
 of the disease. Because Slc11a1 gene affects susceptibility and 
clinical outcome of autoimmune and infectious diseases, we analyzed five
 polymorphisms of the Slc11a1 gene in a case-control study with 97 dogs
: three new single nucleotide polymorphisms and a G-stretch in the 
promoter and a microsatellite in intron 1. Haplotype frequency 
distributions showed significant differences between case and control 
populations (P = .01), most likely owing to the single nucleotide 
polymorphisms in the promoter region that were associated to case dogs. 
The most frequent haplotypes included TAG-8-141, which was present in 
all the breeds, in both case and control animals; and TAG-9-145, which 
was overrepresented in the control population and mostly found in boxer 
dogs. Within the boxer breed, 81% of the healthy dogs were homozygous 
TAG-9-145, whereas TAG-8-141 was significantly associated to case boxers
 (P = .02). The special genotype distribution for the Slc11a1 
polymorphism associated with the prevalence of the illness in the boxer 
breed emphasizes the potential importance that breed genetic background 
has in canine leishmaniasis susceptibility.




PMID: 16295448
 

TITLE: Acute fulminant visceral leishmaniasis in children--a report of two
cases.

AUTHORS: Ruma Pahwa, Sanjeev K Gupta, Tejinder Singh, Sonu Nigam

AFFILIATION: Departments of Pathology, Maulana Azad Medical College and
associated L.N., G.B. Pant Hospitals, New Delhi. rumaarora1 at rediffmail.com

REFERENCE: Indian J Pathol Microbiol 2004 Jul 47(3):428-30

Kala-azar usually presents in older children and young adults with 
insidious onset of fever, splenomegaly and pancytopenia. Characteristic 
L.D. bodies in bone marrow or splenic aspirates are diagnostic of kala-
azar. We report two cases of visceral leishmaniasis in children-1 1/2 
and 10 year old with unusual presentation and fulminant course. In case 
1 a female presented with fever, jaundice and bleeding manifestations. 
Peripheral smear revealed L.D. bodies in neutrophils as well as 
monocytes. The liver function tests were deranged. The child died within
 three days due to respiratory arrest. Case 2 was a boy who presented 
with fever and altered sensorium with deranged liver function tests. The
 patient expired within three days due to hepatic encephalopathy. Thus, 
it is important to consider the diagnosis of Kala-azar even when the 
presenting complaints are atypical and institute diagnostic and 
therapeutic measures early to prevent mortality.








PMID: 16295422
 

TITLE: Myxomatous stromal changes and necrosis of bone marrow--a retrospective
study of 3 years.

AUTHORS: Nalini Gupta, Vijay Kumar, Neelam Varma, Gurjeevan Garewal, Reena Das,
Jasmina Ahluwalia, Sumitra Dash

AFFILIATION: Department of Hematology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical
Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.

REFERENCE: Indian J Pathol Microbiol 2004 Jul 47(3):351-3

Myxomatous stromal changes and bone marrow necrosis (BMN) are uncommon 
histologic findings. These changes have been found in various conditions
 like disseminated carcinomatosis, postchemotherapy cases, chronic 
infections, infiltrative disorders of the marrow etc. The present study 
is a retrospective study of 3 years (Jan, 1999 to Dec. 2001) from Deptt
. Of Hematology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and 
Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh (India). During this period, 3740 bone 
marrow samples were examined. Myxomatous stromal changes and bone marrow
 necrosis were noted in 0.43% (16/3740) and 0.45% (17/3740) samples 
respectively. In addition to common causes of myxomatous stromal changes
 and bone marrow necrosis as described in the literature, this study 
highlights the association of these conditions with some of the rarer 
entities like hyperoxalosis, leishmaniasis, parvovirus induced marrow 
aplasia and cryptococcal infection. There is paucity of such 
associations in the literature.




PMID: 16295673
 

TITLE: Kala-Azar at high altitude.

AUTHORS: Sanjay K Mahajan, Prem Machhan, Anil Kanga, Surinder Thakur, Ashok
Sharma, Bhupal Singh Prasher, Lal Singh Pal

AFFILIATION: Department of Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla.

REFERENCE: J Commun Dis 2004 Jun 36(2):117-20

Kala-azar or Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a disease of low altitude (
approximately 500 meters mean sea level). In India, however cases have 
been reported from sub-Himalayan region (350-960 meters MSL) of Kumaon 
region of Uttaranchal. We present two patients of VL, natives of tribal 
district of Kinnnaur (2000-3000 meters MSL), Himachal Pradesh, who had 
never visited known endemic area for Leishmaniasis. These are probably 
first indigenous cases of VL being reported from an area situated at an 
altitude of 3000 meters and 2300 meters MSL.




********************************************************************************************************************

 The following references are revised files and are brought to you in accordance
to license agreement with the NLM.

********************************************************************************************************************


PMID: 15911851
 

TITLE: Treating HIV/AIDS and leishmaniasis coinfection in Ethiopia.

AUTHORS: Aranka Anema, Koert Ritmeijer

AFFILIATION: British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's
Hospital, Vancouver, BC.

REFERENCE: CMAJ 2005 May 172(11):1434-5




REQUEST: [ leishmania ]

(18 articles match this request. 9 articles matching other requests removed)



PMID: 16212955
 

TITLE: Leishmanin skin test in guinea pig with a single purified protein of
Leishmania major.

AUTHORS: A R Khabiri, F Bagheri, M H Alimohammadian, M Assmar, S R Nadaf

AFFILIATION: Department of Parasitology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran,
Iran.

REFERENCE: Exp Parasitol 2005 Dec 111(4):239-43

A series of hybridomas was produced by fusion of SP2/0 myeloma cells 
with spleen cells of mice immunized with Leishmania major (L. major). 
The reactivity of secreted monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) was evaluated 
against available leishmanin antigen by enzyme linked immunosorbent 
assay. Only one hybridoma designated as 7F9 secreted IgG1 mAb which was 
shown to be reactive with leishmanin. This mAb was further tested 
against four species of Leishmania (L. donovani, L. tropica, L. infantum
, L. major) and a recombinant gp63. Among the four species tested it was
 shown to be only reactive with promastigotes of L. major. The antigen 
recognized by this mAb was purified and analyzed from both sonicated and
 supernatant cultures of L. major by immunoaffinity chromatography and 
reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography. The purified 
antigen, which gave a single band of 56kDa on sodium dodecyl sulfate 
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis elicited a strong delayed-type 
hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction in guinea pigs sensitized with L. major
. It was almost of the same degree as that produced by leishmanin. These
 results suggest that an L. major-specific antigen is an alternative as 
a specific diagnostic skin test reagent, which could lead to a better 
understanding of the mechanism of DTH in L. major.




PMID: 16198340
 

TITLE: Antiproliferative and ultrastructural effects of BPQ-OH, a specific
inhibitor of squalene synthase, on Leishmania amazonensis.

AUTHORS: Juliany C F Rodrigues, Julio A Urbina, Wanderley de Souza

AFFILIATION: Laboratório de Ultraestrutura Celular Hertha Meyer, Instituto de
Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade, Federal do Rio de Janeiro,
CCS-Bloco G, Ilha do Fundão, 21949-900 Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil.

REFERENCE: Exp Parasitol 2005 Dec 111(4):230-8

Parasites of the Leishmania genus require for the growth and viability 
the de novo synthesis of specific sterols as such as episterol and 5-
dehydroepisterol because cholesterol, which is abundant in their 
mammalian hosts, does not fulfill the parasite sterol requirements. 
Squalene synthase catalyzes the first committed step in the sterol 
biosynthesis and has been studied as a possible target for the treatment
 of high cholesterol levels in humans. In this work we investigated the 
antiproliferative and ultrastructural effects induced by 3-(biphenyl-4-
yl)-3-hydroxyquinuclidine (BPQ-OH), a specific inhibitor of squalene 
synthase, on promastigote and amastigote forms of Leishmania amazonensis
. BPQ-OH had a potent dose-dependent growth inhibitory effect against 
promastigotes and amastigotes, with IC(50) values 0.85 and 0.11muM, 
respectively. Ultrastructural analysis of the treated parasites revealed
 several changes in the morphology of promastigote forms. The main 
ultrastructural change was found in the plasma membrane, which showed 
signs of disorganization, with the concomitant formation of elaborated 
structures. We also observed alterations in the mitochondrion-
kinetoplast complex such as mitochondrial swelling, rupture of its 
internal membrane and an abnormal compaction of the kinetoplast. Other 
alterations included the appearance of multivesicular bodies, myelin-
like figures, alterations of the flagellar membrane and presence of 
parasites with two or more nuclei and kinetoplasts. We conclude that the
 BPQ-OH was a potent growth inhibitor of L. amazonensis, which led to 
profound changes of the parasite's ultrastructure and might be a 
valuable lead compound for the development of novel anti-Leishmania 
agents.




PMID: 16037487
 

TITLE: Cloning and characterization of the phosphoglucomutase of Trypanosoma
cruzi and functional complementation of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae PGM null
mutant.

AUTHORS: Luciana L Penha, Lucia Mendonça-Previato, Jose O Previato, Julio
Scharfstein, Norton Heise, Ana Paula C de A Lima

AFFILIATION: Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Centro de Ciências da
Saúde - Bloco G, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21944-970, Cidade
Universitária, Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

REFERENCE: Glycobiology 2005 Dec 15(12):1359-67

Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent of Chagas' disease, a chronic
 illness characterized by progressive cardiomyopathy and/or denervation 
of the digestive tract. The parasite surface is covered with 
glycoconjugates, such as mucin-type glycoproteins and 
glycoinositolphospholipids (GIPLs), whose glycans are rich in 
galactopyranose (Galp) and/or galactofuranose (Galf) residues. These 
molecules have been implicated in attachment of the parasite to and 
invasion of mammalian cells and in modulation of the host immune 
responses during infection. In T. cruzi, galactose (Gal) biosynthesis 
depends on the conversion of uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glucose (UDP-Glc
) into UDP-Gal by an NAD-dependent reduction catalyzed by UDP-Gal 4-
epimerase. Phosphoglucomutase (PGM) is a key enzyme in this metabolic 
pathway catalyzing the interconversion of Glc-6-phosphate (Glc-6-P) and 
Glc-1-P which is then converted into UDP-Glc. We here report the cloning
 of T. cruzi PGM, encoding T. cruzi PGM, and the heterologous expression
 of a functional enzyme in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. T. cruzi PGM is a 
single copy gene encoding a predicted protein sharing 61% amino acid 
identity with Leishmania major PGM and 43% with the yeast enzyme. The 59
-trans-splicing site of PGM RNA was mapped to a region located at 18 
base pairs upstream of the start codon. Expression of T. cruzi PGM in a 
S. cerevisiae null mutant-lacking genes encoding both isoforms of PGM (
pgm1nu/pgm2nu) rescued the lethal phenotype induced upon cell growth on 
Gal as sole carbon source.








PMID: 16299330
 

TITLE: Leishmania pifanoi Amastigotes Avoid Macrophage Production of Superoxide
by Inducing Heme Degradation.

AUTHORS: Nam-Kha Pham, Jennifer Mouriz, Peter E Kima

AFFILIATION: Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, Building 981, Box
110700, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. pkima at ufl.edu.

REFERENCE: Infect Immun 2005 Dec 73(12):8322-33

Whereas infections of macrophages by promastigote forms of Leishmania 
mexicana pifanoi induce the production of superoxide, infections by 
amastigotes barely induce superoxide production. Several approaches were
 employed to gain insight into the mechanism by which amastigotes avoid 
eliciting superoxide production. First, in experiments with nitroblue 
tetrazolium, we found that 25% of parasitophorous vacuoles (PVs) that 
harbor promastigotes are positive for the NADPH oxidase complex, in 
contrast to only 2% of PVs that harbor amastigotes. Second, confocal 
microscope analyses of infected cells labeled with antibodies to gp91(
phox) revealed that this enzyme subunit is found in PVs that harbor 
amastigotes. Third, in immunoblots of subcellular fractions enriched 
with PVs from amastigote-infected cells and probed with antibodies to 
gp91(phox), only the 65-kDa premature form of gp91(phox) was found. In 
contrast, subcellular fractions from macrophages that ingested zymosan 
particles contained both the 91- and 65-kDa forms of gp91(phox). This 
suggested that only the immature form of gp91(phox) is recruited to PVs 
that harbor amastigotes. Given that gp91(phox) maturation is dependent 
on the availability of heme, we found that infections by Leishmania 
parasites induce an increase in heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1), the rate-
limiting enzyme in heme degradation. Infections by amastigotes performed
 in the presence of metalloporphyrins, which are inhibitors of HO-1, 
resulted in superoxide production by infected macrophages. Taken 
together, we propose that Leishmania amastigotes avoid superoxide 
production by inducing an increase in heme degradation, which results in
 blockage of the maturation of gp91(phox), which prevents assembly of 
the NADPH oxidase enzyme complex.




PMID: 16288354
 

TITLE: [Parasitic diseases in pediatric cancer patients.]

AUTHORS: R Bialek

AFFILIATION: Institut für Tropenmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen.
ralf.bialek at med.uni-tuebingen.de.

REFERENCE: Klin Padiatr 2005 Nov 217 Suppl 1():85-90

Absract. Parasitic infections are rare events in pediatric oncology. 
Transmission routes and diseases of most parasites do not differ 
significantly from those seen in otherwise healthy children. However, 
latent asymptomatic infections with Cryptosporidium spp., Leishmania spp
., Strongyloides stercoralis and Toxoplasma gondii might exacerbate 
during immunosuppression. Screening in asymptomatic patients is often 
unsuccessful due to the low sensitivity of available assays except in 
toxoplasmosis. This article provides the recommendations of the 
Infectious Diseases Working Party of the German Society for Pediatric 
Infectious Diseases (DGPI) and the German Society for Pediatric 
Hematology/Oncology (GPOH) for the appropriate diagnostic procedures and
 antiparasitic treatment immunocompromised patients.




PMID: 16162503
 

TITLE: Higher plant plastids and cyanobacteria have folate carriers related to
those of trypanosomatids.

AUTHORS: Sebastian M J Klaus, Edmund R S Kunji, Gale G Bozzo, Alexandre Noiriel,
Rocío Díaz de la Garza, Gilles J C Basset, Stéphane Ravanel, Fabrice
Rébeillé, Jesse F Gregory, Andrew D Hanson

AFFILIATION: Horticultural Sciences and Food Science and Human Nutrition
Departments, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611.

REFERENCE: J Biol Chem 2005 Nov 280(46):38457-63

Cyanobacterial and plant genomes encode proteins with some similarity to
 the folate and biopterin transporters of the trypanosomatid parasite 
Leishmania. The Synechocystis slr0642 gene product and its closest 
Arabidopsis homolog, the At2g32040 gene product, are representative 
examples. Both have 12 probable transmembrane domains, and the At2g32040
 protein has a predicted chloroplast transit peptide. When expressed in 
Escherichia coli pabA pabB or folE, mutants, which are unable to produce
 or take up folates, the slr0642 protein and a modified At2g32040 
protein (truncated and fused to the N terminus of slr0642) enabled 
growth on 5-formyltetrahydrofolate or folic acid but not on 5-
formyltetrahydrofolate triglutamate, demonstrating that both proteins 
mediate folate monoglutamate transport. Both proteins also mediate 
transport of the antifolate analogs methotrexate and aminopterin, as 
evidenced by their ability to greatly increase the sensitivity of E. 
coli to these inhibitors. The full-length At2g32040 polypeptide was 
translocated into isolated pea chloroplasts and, when fused to green 
fluorescent protein, directed the passenger protein to the envelope of 
Arabidopsis chloroplasts in transient expression experiments. At2g32040 
transcripts were present at similar levels in roots and aerial organs, 
indicating that the protein occurs in non-green plastids as well as 
chloroplasts. Insertional inactivation of At2g32040 significantly raised
 the total folate content of chloroplasts and lowered the proportion of 
5-methyltetrahydrofolate but did not discernibly affect growth. These 
findings establish conservation of function among folate and biopterin 
transporter family proteins from three kingdoms of life.




PMID: 16054271
 

TITLE: Aluminium phosphate potentiates the efficacy of DNA vaccines against
Leishmaniamexicana.

AUTHORS: Miguel Rosado-Vallado, Mirza Mut-Martin, Maria Del Rosario
García-Miss, Eric Dumonteil

AFFILIATION: Laboratorio de Parasitología, Centro de Investigaciones Regionales
"Dr. Hideyo Noguchi", Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Ave. Itzáes #490 x 59,
97000 Mérida, Yucatán, México.

REFERENCE: Vaccine 2005 Nov 23(46-47):5372-9

DNA vaccines have been able to induce partial protection against 
infection with Leishmania in mice, but it is still necessary to increase
 their efficacy. In the present study we evaluated aluminium phosphate 
as an adjuvant of different formulations and doses of DNA vaccines 
against L. mexicana in BALB/c mice. Aluminium phosphate had no effect on
 the humoral response induced by a high dose (100mug) DNA vaccine, but 
slightly increased the cellular response and the protection against 
infection. It also allowed a non-immunoprotective low dose (20mug) DNA 
vaccine encoding L. mexicana GP63 and Leishmania donovani NH36 to become
 protective. Aluminium phosphate may thus be an effective, low cost and 
safe adjuvant for DNA vaccines, and the vaccine formulation described 
here may be an excellent candidate for further vaccine development 
against Leishmania.




PMID: 16252191
 

TITLE: A case of visceral leishmaniasis misdiagnosed as autoimmune hepatitis.

AUTHORS: Buket Dalgiç, Ismail Dursun, Gülen Akyol

REFERENCE: Turk J Gastroenterol 2005 Mar 16(1):52-3




PMID: 16295510
 

TITLE: Amastigote forms of Leishmania donovani in peripheral blood.

AUTHORS: Mona Anand, Rajive Kumar, O P Malhotra, Sarika Singh

REFERENCE: Indian J Pathol Microbiol 2004 Apr 47(2):307




REQUEST: [ sand fly ]

(0 articles match this request)



REQUEST: [ sandfly ]

(1 article matches this request)



PMID: 16226273
 

TITLE: (1S,3S,7R)-3-methyl-alpha-himachalene from the male sandfly Lutzomyia
longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae) induces neurophysiological responses and
attracts both males and females.

AUTHORS: C N Spiegel, P Jeanbourquin, P M Guerin, A M Hooper, S Claude, R
Tabacchi, S Sano, K Mori

AFFILIATION: Institute of Zoology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile Argand
11, Case postale 2, CH- 2007 Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Depto. Ultra-estrutura e
Biologia Celular/Instituto Oswaldo Cruz-FIOCRUZ, 21040-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ,
Brazil.

REFERENCE: J Insect Physiol 2005 Dec 51(12):1366-75

Lutzomyia longipalpis adult males form leks on or near hosts and release
 (1S,3S,7R)-3-methyl-alpha-himachalene from their tergal glands to lure 
females to the same site for mating and feeding. Here we have examined 
whether the male-produced attractant could also serve as a male 
aggregation stimulus. High resolution chiral capillary gas 
chromatography analysis of male tergal gland extracts, synthetic (1S,3S,
7R)-3-methyl-alpha-himachalene, and a synthetic mixture of all isomers 
of 3-methyl-alpha-himachalene, was coupled to electrophysiological 
recordings from ascoid sensillum receptor cells in antennae of male and 
female sandflies. Receptor cells of both sexes responded only to the 
main component of the male tergal gland extract that eluted at the same 
retention time as (1S,3S,7R)-3-methyl-alpha-himachalene. Furthermore, of
 the eight 3-methyl-alpha-himachalene isomers in the synthetic mixture 
only the fraction containing (1S,3S,7R)-3-methyl-alpha-himachalene, co-
eluting with an isomer of (1S*,3S*,7S*)-3-methyl-alpha-himachalene, 
elicited an electrophysiological response from male and female ascoid 
sensillum receptor cells. Both males and females flew upwind in a wind 
tunnel towards a filter paper disk treated with either 4-6 male 
equivalents of the tergal gland extract, pure (1S,3S,7R)-3-methyl-alpha-
himachalene or the synthetic mixture of eight isomers. This indicates 
that (1S,3S,7R)-3-methyl-alpha-himachalene derived from L. longipalpis 
males may have a dual function in causing male aggregation as well as 
serving as a sex pheromone for females.















You receive this email because you requested RefScout®'s literature
update.
If you would like to change or add requests, please go to your user
profile.

If you can't read our newsletter, please resend newsletter back to us to
info at refscout.com, including information
about your operating system and mail client software you use, and we will do
our
best to solve the problem.

If you would like to be removed from RefScout®'s literature service, please
press the
remove button.



DISCLAIMER







----- End forwarded message -----




More information about the Leish-l mailing list