Parasitic Diseases Commons^™

Associations Between Varied Susceptibilities To Pfatp4 Inhibitors And Genotypes In Ugandan Plasmodium Falciparum Isolates., Oriana Kreutzfeld, Stephanie A. Rasmussen, Aarti A. Ramanathan, Patrick K. Tumwebaze, Oswald Byaruhanga, Thomas Katairo, Victor Asua, Martin Okitwi, Stephen Orena, Jennifer Legac, Melissa D. Conrad, Samuel L. Nsobya, Ozkan Aydemir, Jeffrey Bailey, Maelle Duffey, Brett R. Bayles, Akhil B. Vaidya, Roland A. Cooper, Philip J. Rosenthal

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

Among novel compounds under recent investigation as potential new antimalarial drugs are three independently developed inhibitors of the Plasmodium falciparum P-type ATPase (PfATP4): KAE609 (cipargamin), PA92, and SJ733. We assessed ex vivo susceptibilities to these compounds of 374 fresh P. falciparum isolates collected in Tororo and Busia districts, Uganda, from 2016 to 2019. Median IC50s were 65 nM for SJ733, 9.1 nM for PA92, and 0.5 nM for KAE609. Sequencing of pfatp4 for 218 of these isolates demonstrated many nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms; the most frequent mutations were G1128R (69% of isolates mixed or mutant), Q1081K/R (68%), G223S (25%), N1045K …

Drug Susceptibility Of Plasmodium Falciparum In Eastern Uganda: A Longitudinal Phenotypic And Genotypic Study, Patrick K. Tumwebaze, Thomas Katairo, Martin Okitwi, Oswald Byaruhanga, Stephen Orena, Victor Asua, Marvin Duvalsaint, Jennifer Legac, Sevil Chelebieva, Frida G. Ceja, Stephanie A. Rasmussen, Melissa D. Conrad, Samuel L. Nsobya, Ozkan Aydemir, Jeffrey A. Bailey, Brett R. Bayles, Philip J. Rosenthal, Roland A. Cooper

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

Background: Treatment and control of malaria depends on artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) and is challenged by drug resistance, but thus far resistance to artemisinins and partner drugs has primarily occurred in southeast Asia. The aim of this study was to characterise antimalarial drug susceptibility of Plasmodium falciparum isolates from Tororo and Busia districts in Uganda.

Methods: In this prospective longitudinal study, P falciparum isolates were collected from patients aged 6 months or older presenting at the Tororo District Hospital (Tororo district, a site with relatively low malaria incidence) or Masafu General Hospital (Busia district, a high-incidence site) in eastern Uganda …

Cryptosporidium Spp. Diagnosis And Research In The 21st Century, Jennifer K. O'Leary, Roy D. Sleator, Brigid Lucey

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

The protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium has emerged as a leading cause of diarrhoeal illness worldwide, posing a significant threat to young children and immunocompromised patients. While endemic in the vast majority of developing countries, Cryptosporidium also has the potential to cause waterborne epidemics and large scale outbreaks in both developing and developed nations. Anthroponontic and zoonotic transmission routes are well defined, with the ingestion of faecally contaminated food and water supplies a common source of infection. Microscopy, the current diagnostic mainstay, is considered by many to be suboptimal. This has prompted a shift towards alternative diagnostic techniques in the advent of …

Regulation Of Antigenic Variation By Trypanosoma Brucei Telomere Proteins Depends On Their Unique Dna Binding Activities, Bibo Li Ph.D., Yanxiang Zhao

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Trypanosoma brucei causes human African trypanosomiasis and regularly switches its major surface antigen, Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG), to evade the host immune response. Such antigenic variation is a key pathogenesis mechanism that enables T. brucei to establish long-term infections. VSG is expressed exclusively from subtelomere loci in a strictly monoallelic manner, and DNA recombination is an important VSG switching pathway. The integrity of telomere and subtelomere structure, maintained by multiple telomere proteins, is essential for T. brucei viability and for regulating the monoallelic VSG expression and VSG switching. Here we will focus on T. brucei TRF and RAP1, two telomere …

The Antimalarial Mmv688533 Provides Potential For Single-Dose Cures With A High Barrier To, James M. Murithi, Cécile Pascal, Jade Bath, Xavier Boulenc, Nina F. Gnädig, Charisse Flerida A. Pasaje, Kelly Rubiano, Tomas Yeo, Sachel Mok, Sylvie Klieber, Paul Desert, María Belén Jiménez-Díaz, Jutta Marfurt, Mélanie Rouillier, Mohammed H. Cherkaoui-Rbati, Nathalie Gobeau, Sergio Wittlin, Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, Ric N. Price, Grennady Wirjanata, Rintis Noviyanti, Patrick K. Tumwebaze, Roland A. Cooper, Philip J. Rosenthal, Laura M. Sanz, Francisco-Javier Gamo, Jayan Joseph, Shivendra Singh, Sridevi Bashyam, Jean Michel Augereau, Elie Giraud, Tanguy Bozec, Thierry Vermat, Gilles Tuffal, Jean-Michel Guillon, Jérôme Menegotto, Laurent Sallé, Guillaume Louit, Marie-José Cabanis, Marie Françoise Nicolas, Michel Doubovetzky, Rita Merino, Nadir Bessila, Iñigo Angulo-Barturen, Delphine Baud, Lidiya Bebrevska, Fanny Escudié, Jacquin C. Niles, Benjamin Blasco, Simon Campbell, Gilles Courtemanche, Laurent Fraisse, Alain Pellet, David A. Fidock, Didier Leroy

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

The emergence and spread of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to first-line antimalarials creates an imperative to identify and develop potent preclinical candidates with distinct modes of action. Here, we report the identification of MMV688533, an acylguanidine that was developed following a whole-cell screen with compounds known to hit high-value targets in human cells. MMV688533 displays fast parasite clearance in vitro and is not cross-resistant with known antimalarials. In a P. falciparum NSG mouse model, MMV688533 displays a long-lasting pharmacokinetic profile and excellent safety. Selection studies reveal a low propensity for resistance, with modest loss of potency mediated by point mutations in …

The Antimalarial Mmv688533 Provides Potential For Single-Dose Cures With A High Barrier To, James M. Murithi, Cécile Pascal, Jade Bath, Xavier Boulenc, Nina F. Gnädig, Charisse Flerida A. Pasaje, Kelly Rubiano, Tomas Yeo, Sachel Mok, Sylvie Klieber, Paul Desert, María Belén Jiménez-Díaz, Jutta Marfurt, Mélanie Rouillier, Mohammed H. Cherkaoui-Rbati, Nathalie Gobeau, Sergio Wittlin, Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, Ric N. Price, Grennady Wirjanata, Rintis Noviyanti, Patrick Tumwebaze, Roland A. Cooper, Philip J. Rosenthal, Laura M. Sanz, Francisco-Javier Gamo, Jayan Joseph, Shivendra Singh, Sridevi Bashyam, Jean Michel Augereau, Elie Giraud, Tanguy Bozec, Thierry Vermat, Gilles Tuffal, Jean-Michel Guillon, Jérôme Menegotto, Laurent Sallé, Guillaume Louit, Marie-José Cabanis, Marie Françoise Nicolas, Michel Doubovetzky, Rita Merino, Nadir Bessila, Iñigo Angulo-Barturen, Delphine Baud, Lidiya Bebrevska, Fanny Escudié, Jacquin C. Niles, Benjamin Blasco, Simon Campbell, Gilles Courtemanche, Laurent Fraisse, Alain Pellet, David A. Fidock, Didier Leroy

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

The emergence and spread of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to first-line antimalarials creates an imperative to identify and develop potent preclinical candidates with distinct modes of action. Here, we report the identification of MMV688533, an acylguanidine that was developed following a whole-cell screen with compounds known to hit high-value targets in human cells. MMV688533 displays fast parasite clearance in vitro and is not cross-resistant with known antimalarials. In a P. falciparum NSG mouse model, MMV688533 displays a long-lasting pharmacokinetic profile and excellent safety. Selection studies reveal a low propensity for resistance, with modest loss of potency mediated by point mutations in …

Keeping Balance Between Genetic Stability And Plasticity At The Telomere And Subtelomere Of Trypanosoma Brucei, Bibo Li Ph.D.

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Telomeres, the nucleoprotein complexes at chromosome ends, are well-known for their essential roles in genome integrity and chromosome stability. Yet, telomeres and subtelomeres are frequently less stable than chromosome internal regions. Many subtelomeric genes are important for responding to environmental cues, and subtelomeric instability can facilitate organismal adaptation to extracellular changes, which is a common theme in a number of microbial pathogens. In this review, I will focus on the delicate and important balance between stability and plasticity at telomeres and subtelomeres of a kinetoplastid parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, which causes human African trypanosomiasis and undergoes antigenic variation to evade the …

Acute Psychosis With Recurrent Neurocysticercosis: A Case Presentation, Nasir F. Siddique, Kristy A. Fisher, Joshua Chang, Clara L. Alvarez Villalba

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Neurocysticercosis, a parasitic infection of the central nervous system (CNS) caused by the Taenia solium cestode, presents clinically with a large and diverse spectrum of symptomatology, dependent upon lesion number, locale and ensuing inflammatory response. To this date, there are only two documented cases of psychosis presenting in patients with neurocysticercosis, both of which were published in India. This case presentation depicts the first documented case of Psychotic Disorder Due to Another Medical Condition: Neurocysticercosis in the United States. The authors postulate that the atypical presentation of the neuropsychiatric instability with the aberrant recurrence of neurocysticercosis is predominantly attributable to …

Balanced Impacts Of Fitness And Drug Pressure On The Evolution Of Pfmdr1 Polymorphisms In Plasmodium Falciparum., Marvin Duvalsaint, Melissa D. Conrad, Stephen Tukwasibwe, Patrick K. Tumwebaze, Jennifer Legac, Roland A. Cooper, Philip J. Rosenthal

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Anti-malarial drug resistance may be limited by decreased fitness in resistant parasites. Important contributors to resistance are mutations in the Plasmodium falciparum putative drug transporter PfMDR1.

METHODS: Impacts on in vitro fitness of two common PfMDR1 polymorphisms, N86Y, which is associated with sensitivity to multiple drugs, and Y184F, which has no clear impact on drug sensitivity, were evaluated to study associations between resistance mediators and parasite fitness, measured as relative growth in competitive culture experiments. NF10 P. falciparum lines engineered to represent all PfMDR1 N86Y and Y184F haplotypes were co-cultured for 40 days, and the genetic make-up of the …

Complexity Of Malaria Transmission Dynamics In The Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Ana Maria Ribeiro De Castro Duarte, Licia Natal Fernandes, Fabiana Santos Silva, Igor Lucoves Sicchi, Luis Filipe Mucci, Izilda Curado, Aristides Ferrnandes, Antônio Ralph Medeiros-Sousa, Walter Ceretti-Junior, Mauro Toledo Marrelli, Eduardo Evangelista, Renildo Teixeira, Juliana Laurito Summa, Marcello Schiavo Nardi, Margoth Ramos Garnica, Ana Carolina Loss, Julyana Cerqueira Buery, Crispim Cerutti Jr., M. Andreína Pacheco, Ananias A. Escalante, Maria Anice Mureb Sallum, Gabriel Zorello Laporta

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium vivax are protozoan parasites that can cause malaria in humans. They are genetically indistinguishable from, respectively, Plasmodium brasilianum and Plasmodium simium, that is, parasites infecting New World non-human primates in South America. In the tropical rainforests of the Brazilian Atlantic coast, it has long been hypothesized that P. brasilianum and P. simium in platyrrhine primates originated from P. malariae and P. vivax in humans. A recent hypothesis proposed the inclusion of Plasmodium falciparum into the transmission dynamics between humans and non-human primates in the Brazilian Atlantic tropical rainforest. Herein, we assess the occurrence of human …

Characterization Of Di-Aryl Urea Compounds Against Acute And Chronic Toxoplasma Gondii, Austin Sanford

Theses & Dissertations

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that has infected nearly 60 million individuals in the United States alone. Acute infection causes ill effects to the fetus in utero when mothers are primarily infected, and to immunocompromised individuals. Chronic infection consists of quiescent tissue cysts located primarily in brain tissue and is capable of reverting back to the acute stage causing severe toxoplasma encephalitis in immunocompromised individuals. Current treatments for acute infection are lacking while there are no approved treatments for the clearance of chronic infection. The aim of this research was to evaluate a family of di-aryl urea compounds …

Defining Septicemia Incidence And Mortality In South Carolina Through Access To Health Care, Behavioral Health, And Low Socio-Economic Status, Raeann Vossberg

Senior Theses

This study aims to provide an in-depth view of septicemia mortality and incidence in the state of South Carolina through the lenses of socio-economic factors, access to healthcare, and behavioral health factors. This study was conducted using data from the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, utilizing their Hospitalization, Inpatient, Emergency Department, and Outpatient data both separately and combined depending on the data point, along with additional data sources for support (see works cited). We hypothesize that the higher rates of septicemia mortality and incidence in the southeastern United States, as well as in South Carolina in particular, could …

Synthesis Of 1-(4-Ethoxy-3-Methoxybenzyl)-1,10-Phenanthrolin-1-Ium Bromide And Its Evaluation As Antiplasmodium Through Heme Polymerization Inhibitory Activity (Hpia) Assay, Dhina Fitriastuti, Viny Alfiyah, Mustofa Mustofa, Jumina Jumina, Muhammad Idham Darussalam Mardjan

Makara Journal of Science

This study describes the development of N-benzyl-1,10-phenantrolinium salt as an antiplasmodium agent. The salt, that is, 1-(4-ethoxy-3-methoxybenzyl)-1,10-phenanthrolin-1-ium bromide, was prepared using vanillin as the starting material in four simple synthetic steps. First, the alkylation of vanillin using diethyl sulfate produced 4-ethoxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde in 79% yield. Second, the reduction of the protected vanillin by NaBH₄ through the grinding method allowed us to obtain 4-ethoxy-3-methoxybenzyl alcohol in 96% yield. Next, the bromination of the benzyl alcohol under solvent-free condition led to the formation of the corresponding benzyl bromide, which in turn underwent bimolecular nucleophilic substitution with 1,10-phenanthroline to produce the desired …

An Inactivated Bacterium (Paraprobiotic) Expressing Bacillus Thuringiensis Cry5b As A Therapeutic For Ascaris And Parascaris Spp. Infections In Large Animals, Joseph F. Urban, Martin K. Nielsen, David Gazzola, Yue Xie, Ethiopia Beshah, Yan Hu, Hanchen Li, Florentina Rus, Kelly Flanagan, Austin Draper, Sridhar Vakalapudi, Robert W. Li, Gary R. Ostroff, Raffi V. Aroian

Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center Faculty Publications

Ascaris and Parascaris are important parasites in the family Ascarididae, large, ubiquitous intestinal-dwelling nematodes infecting all classes of vertebrates. Parasitic nematode drug resistance in veterinary medicine and drug recalcitrance in human medicine are increasing worldwide, with few if any new therapeutic classes on the horizon. Some of these parasites are zoonotic, e.g., Ascaris is passed from humans to pigs and vice versa. The development of new therapies against this family of parasites would have major implications for both human and livestock health. Here we tested the therapeutic ability of a paraprobiotic or dead probiotic that expresses the Bacillus …

Malaria In Southern Venezuela: The Hottest Hotspot In Latin America, Maria Eugenia Grillet, Jorge E. Moreno, Juan V. Hernández-Villena, Maria F. Vincenti-González, Oscar Noya, Adriana Tami, Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, Martin Llewellyn, Rachel Lowe, Ananias A. Escalante, Jan E. Conn

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Malaria elimination in Latin America is becoming an elusive goal. Malaria cases reached a historical ~1 million in 2017 and 2018, with Venezuela contributing 53% and 51% of those cases, respectively. Historically, malaria incidence in southern Venezuela has accounted for most of the country’s total number of cases. The efficient deployment of disease prevention measures and prediction of disease spread to new regions requires an in-depth understanding of spatial heterogeneity on malaria transmission dynamics. Herein, we characterized the spatial epidemiology of malaria in southern Venezuela from 2007 through 2017 and described the extent to which malaria distribution has changed country-wide …

Dirofilaria Immitis Prevalence In Canis Latrans In Kentucky, Melanie Ann Brandon

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Dirofilaria immitis (canine heartworm) was found in forty-two (42) of the two hundred seventy-five (275) Canis latrans (coyote) necropsied in the state of Kentucky from November 27, 2019 through March 3, 2021. Thirty-five (35) of the positive cases were from western Kentucky region with the other seven spread across the state. With this group of coyotes, one hundred fifty-eight (158) were male and the other one hundred six-teen (116) were female. The estimated age ranged from a pup to senior dogs. A little over forty percent of the dogs were obtained through coyote/predator tournaments; the remaining were acquired from pest …

Occurrence Of Pulmonary Arteritis With Lungworm Infections In Gray Seals From New England, 2013-2020, Jillian R. Broadhurst, Inga Sidor Dvm, Ms, Dacvp

Honors Theses and Capstones

Gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) are a common pinniped species in New England coastal waters. Parasitic infection is an important cause of mortality for this species, and lungworm species are frequently implicated in cases of respiratory infection, especially in pups and weanling seals. The most common of these is Otostrongylus circumlitus, a large nematode found in the bronchi and bronchioles of affected seals. The full life cycle is unknown but its presence in lungs and sometimes pulmonary arteries suggests that migration via arterial circulation occurs. Signs and microscopic findings are widely variable; our cases included dyspnea, bloody mucoid …

Trends And Opportunities In Tick-Borne Disease Geography, Catherine A. Lippi, Sadie J. Ryan, Alexis L. White, Holly D. Gaff, Colin J. Carlson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Tick-borne diseases are a growing problem in many parts of the world, and their surveillance and control touch on challenging issues in medical entomology, agricultural health, veterinary medicine, and biosecurity. Spatial approaches can be used to synthesize the data generated by integrative One Health surveillance systems, and help stakeholders, managers, and medical geographers understand the current and future distribution of risk. Here, we performed a systematic review of over 8,000 studies and identified a total of 303 scientific publications that map tick-borne diseases using data on vectors, pathogens, and hosts (including wildlife, livestock, and human cases). We find that the …

Tick Ecdysteroid Hormone, Global Microbiota/Rickettsia Signaling In The Ovary Versus Carcass During Vitellogenesis In Part-Fed (Virgin) American Dog Ticks, Dermacentor Variabilis, Loganathan Ponnusamy, Haley Sutton, Robert D. Mitchell Iii, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Charles S. Apperson, Richard Michael Roe

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The transovarial transmission of tick-borne bacterial pathogens is an important mechanism for their maintenance in natural populations and transmission, causing disease in humans and animals. The mechanism for this transmission and the possible role of tick hormones facilitating this process have never been studied. Injections of physiological levels of the tick hormone, 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E), into part-fed (virgin) adult females of the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, attached to the host caused a reduction in density of Rickettsia montanensis in the carcass and an increase in the ovaries compared to buffer-injected controls. This injection initiates yolk protein synthesis and uptake …

Complete Genome Sequence Of Rickettsia Parkeri Strain Black Gap, Sandor E. Karpathy, Christopher D. Paddock, Stephanie L. Grizzard, Dhwani Batra, Lori A. Rowe, David T. Gauthier

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

A unique genotype of Rickettsia parkeri, designated R. parkeri strain Black Gap, has thus far been associated exclusively with the North American tick, Dermacentor parumapertus. The compete genome consists of a single circular chromosome with 1,329,522 bp and a G+C content of 32.5%.

Microbiomes Of Blood-Feeding Arthropods: Genes Coding For Essential Nutrients And Relation To Vector Fitness And Pathogenic Infections. A Review, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Philip E. Stewart

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Blood-feeding arthropods support a diverse array of symbiotic microbes, some of which facilitate host growth and development whereas others are detrimental to vector-borne pathogens. We found a common core constituency among the microbiota of 16 different arthropod blood-sucking disease vectors, including Bacillaceae, Rickettsiaceae, Anaplasmataceae, Sphingomonadaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Moraxellaceae and Staphylococcaceae. By comparing 21 genomes of common bacterial symbionts in blood-feeding vectors versus non-blooding insects, we found that certain enteric bacteria benefit their hosts by upregulating numerous genes coding for essential nutrients. Bacteria of blood-sucking vectors expressed significantly more genes (p < 0.001) coding for these essential nutrients than those of non-blooding insects. Moreover, compared to endosymbionts, the genomes of enteric bacteria also contained significantly more genes (p < 0.001) that code for the synthesis of essential amino acids and proteins that detoxify reactive oxygen species. In contrast, microbes in non-blood-feeding insects expressed few gene families coding for these nutrient categories. We also discuss specific midgut bacteria essential for the normal development of pathogens (e.g., Leishmania) versus …

Trypanosoma Cruzi Modulates Piwi-Interacting Rna Expression In Primary Human Cardiac Myocytes During The Early Phase Of Infection, Kayla J. Rayford, Ayorinde Cooley, Ashutosh Arun, Girish Rachakonda, Yulia Kleschenko, Fernando Villalta, Siddharth Pratap, Maria F. Lima, Pius N. Nde

Publications and Research

Trypanosoma cruzi dysregulates the gene expression profile of primary human cardiomyocytes (PHCM) during the early phase of infection through a mechanism which remains to be elucidated. The role that small non-coding RNAs (sncRNA) including PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) play in regulating gene expression during the early phase of infection is unknown. To understand how T. cruzi dysregulate gene expression in the heart, we challenged PHCM with T. cruzi trypomastigotes and analyzed sncRNA, especially piRNA, by RNA-sequencing. The parasite induced significant differential expression of host piRNAs, which can target and regulate the genes which are important during the early infection phase. An …

Prevention Of Pediatric Mortality Associated With Malaria: An Exhaustive Literature Review, Taylor Mosley

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Malaria, a disease that is preventable yet frequently fatal, disproportionately affects pediatric African populations at a rate that results in a child under the age of 5 dying every two minutes. Since 1955, the World Health Organization has contributed to a significant reduction in the morbidity and mortality of malaria; however, progress has stalled in recent years. In some countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, cases have increased since 2015. This literature review seeks to identify factors associated with this incline, as well as what interventions can have the greatest impact to prevent pediatric mortality in areas with the largest …

Plasmodium Impairs Antibacterial Innate Immunity To Systemic Infections In Part Through Hemozoin-Bound Bioactive Molecules., Christopher Lynn Harding

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite efforts to decrease the global health burden of malaria, infections with Plasmodium species continue to cause over 200 million episodes of malaria each year which resulted in 405,000 deaths in 2018 [1]. One complication of malaria is increased susceptibility to invasive bacterial infections. Plasmodium infections impair host immunity to non-Typhoid Salmonella (NTS) through activities of heme oxygenase I (HO-I) )-induced release of immature granulocytes and myeloid cell-derived IL-10. Yet, it is not known if these mechanisms are specific to NTS. We show here, that Plasmodium yoelii 17XNL (Py) infected mice had impaired clearance of systemic Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) during …

Understanding Transmission And Control Of The Pork Tapeworm With Cystiagent: A Spatially Explicit Agent‑Based Model, Ian W. Pray, Wayne Wakeland, William Pan, William E. Lambert, Hector H. Garcia, Armando E. Gonzalez, Seth E. O'Neal, Cysticercosis Working Group Peru

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The pork tapeworm, Taenia solium, is a serious public health problem in rural low-resource areas of Latin America, Africa and Asia, where the associated conditions of nuerocysticercosis (NCC) and porcine cysticercosis cause substantial health and economic harms. An accurate and validated transmission model for T. solium would serve as an important new tool for control and elimination, as it would allow for comparison of available intervention strategies, and prioritization of the most effective strategies for control and elimination efforts.

Methods: We developed a spatially-explicit agent-based model (ABM) for T. solium (“CystiAgent”) that differs from prior T. solium models by …

A Study On Ecological Distribution Of And Selected Gene Expression In Amblyomma Americanum: An Insight Into The Alpha-Galactose Allergy Caused By Tick Bites, Leah Cuthill

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Ticks transmit a wide variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and helminthes to vertebrates. Their life cycle depends on blood meals from various hosts as well as on environmental conditions such as the temperature and habitat type. A newly recognized allergic disease has been identified and is characterized by a delayed reaction following the consumption of some mammalian meats. The allergy often results in life threatening reactions such as anaphylaxis, hives, and breathing problems 3-6 hours after the consumption of mammalian meat. Not everyone develops the allergy when they are bitten by a lone star tick, and the cause …

Molecular And Ultrastructure Study Of Tight Junction During Experimental Entamoeba Spp. Infection, Athraa A. Al-Hilfi Dr, Maha Khalil Al-Malak, Shereen Jawad Al-Ali, Muslim Abd-Ulrahman Al-Tomah

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Entamoeba spp. in particular E.histolytica is the main reason of human amoebiasis. The molecular mechanism of its pathogenicity is poorly understood, therefore the aim this study is to investigate these mechanism on both molecular and ultrastructure levels. Tight junction (TJ) genes Claudin-1 (Cldn1) and Occludin (Ocln) were investigated by real time PCR and the pathological changes by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM), the result showed that the gene expression levels of TJ genes were significantly high in rats infected with E. histolytica E. dispar and E. moshkovskii after 28, 14, 7 days in compare with healthy …

A Case Study On Toxoplasmosis: Ocular Disease, Caleb A. Vass, Elliot Freed

Capital Division GME Virtual Research Day 2020

Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Primary infection by this organism is usually asymptomatic. Some immunocompetent patients infected with this parasite can present as an acute systemic infection but symptoms can also present as ocular disease. In these instances, the ocular disease may be the only symptom, and can be from either an acute infection or a reactivation of the disease.

Pneumonia: An Unexpected Graveyard Visitor?, Daniel A. Casas, Jigar Chauhan, Melanie Williams, Jan Sambataro, David Sukhai, Pablo G. Dubon, Jorge Perez

West Florida Division GME Research Day 2020

Community acquired pneumonia caused by Influenza can present with superinfection. On rare occasions, an unexpected organism is discovered.

A Case Of Babesiosis Seen Outside Of Its Endemic Area And Outside Of Its Incubation Period, Kiran Tirumalasetty, Jinal K. Patel, Gauthier L. Stepman, Bassem Zeidan, K V. Sundaresh, Parth R. Desai, Johnathan Frunzi

West Florida Division GME Research Day 2020

Babesiosis Microti is a parasitic alveolate that is usually transmitted by Ixodes scapularis ticks. In the United States, the endemic areas of Babesiosis include the Northeast and Upper Midwestern regions [1]. Symptoms include fever, malaise, fatigue, vomiting, and jaundice [1]. Current therapy primarily consists of a combination of azithromycin and atovaquone. Clindamycin and quinine may be administered in severe cases. For its emerging health risk worldwide, clinicians must be aware of the several presenting manifestations of babesiosis. Since 2017, the Centers Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has deemed Babesiosis is a reportable disease. This case focuses on the importance of …