Infectious Disease
Chapters
page 1 of 3 pages | next »Trypanosoma cruzi trans-Sialidase: A Cytokine Mimetic (Parasitokine)
Wenda Gao and Miercio A. Pereira
Cytokines are small soluble proteins with high potency in orchestrating host immune responses during stress, injury, tumorgenesis, and infection. Studies in animal models and humans have generated a large body of evidence correlating specific antiparasite immune respons...
Actin/Myosin-Based Gliding Motility in Apicomplexan Parasites
Kai Matuschewski and Herwig Schüler
Apicomplexan parasites move and actively enter host cells by substrate-dependent gliding motility, an unusual form of eukaryotic locomotion that differs fundamentally from the motility of prokaryotic and viral pathogens. Recent research has uncovered some of the cellular and molecular mechanisms und...
Activation of BradykininReceptors by Trypanosoma cruzi: A Role for Cruzipain in Microvascular Pathology
Julio Scharfstein
During its life cycle in the mammalian host, Trypanosoma cruzi productively exploits the enzymatic diversity of its own proteases to generate activation signals for a broad range of host cells. At least for the host responses relayed by the G-protein coupled receptors, the ...
Advantages and Limitations of Transgenic Vector Control: Sterile Males versus Gene Drivers
Christopher Curtis, Paul G. Coleman, David W. Kelly and Diarmid H. Campbell-Lendrum
Transgenesis might be used to produce fitter and more acceptable sterile males than those hitherto produced with radiation or chemosterilants. It is possible to engineer a dominant lethal construct which can be conditionally switched off so that males carrying it can be reared for release. Ste...
Alphavirus Transducing Systems
Brian D. Foy and Ken E. Olson
Alphavirus transducing systems (ATSs) are important tools for expressing genes of interest (GOI) in mosquitoes and nonvector insects. ATSs are derived from infectious cDNA clones of mosquito-borne RNA viruses (family Togaviridae). The most common ATSs in use are derived from Sindbis viruses; however...
Analysis of Molecular Epidemiological Data
Michel Tibayrenc
From the outset, it is useful to try and define sharply the term “molecular epidemiology”. The definition given by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta1 is as follows: “the various biochemical and molecular techniques used to type and subtype pathogens”. Two remarks can be made: (i) this d...
Applications of Mosquito Ecology for Successful Insect Transgenesis-Based Disease Prevention Programs
Thomas W. Scott, Laura C. Harrington, Bart G. J. Knols and Willem Takken
Successful application of genetically modified mosquitoes (GMMs) for disease prevention requires close collaboration among scientists with a diverse spectrum of expertise. Perspectives ranging from theoretical to empirical-within the context of appropriate ethical, social, and cultural guidelines-wi...
Avoidance of Innate Immune Mechanisms by the Protozoan Parasite, Leishmania spp.
David M. Mosser and Suzanne A. Miles
In this chapter, we will examine the mechanisms by which Leishmania parasites interact with host cells. We will try to develop the hypothesis that the success or failure of Leishmania infections can be traced to the initial mechanism(s) of parasite entry into mononuclear phagocytes. We will try to m...
Bacteria of the Genus Asaia: A Potential Paratransgenic Weapon Against Malaria
Guido Favia, Irene Ricci, Massimo Marzorati, Ilaria Negri, Alberto Alma, Luciano Sacchi, Claudio Bandi and Daniele Daffonchio
Symbiotic bacteria have been proposed as tools for control of insect-borne diseases. Primary requirements for such symbionts are dominance, prevalence and stability within the insect body. Most of the bacterial symbionts described to date in Anopheles mosquitoes, the vector of malaria in humans, hav...
Biogenesis of and Activities at the Toxoplasma gondii Parasitophorous Vacuole Membrane
Anthony P. Sinai
Apicomplexan parasites like Toxoplasma gondii are distinctive in their utilization of parasite encoded motor systems to invade cells. Invasion results in the establishment of the parasitophorous vacuole (PV) within the infected cell. Most apicomplexans complete their intracellular tenure withi...
Ca2+ Signaling in the Invasion of Mammalian Cells by Trypanosoma cruzi
Silvia N.J. Moreno and Roberto Docampo
In order to replicate in the mammalian host, Trypanosoma cruzi must invade host cells. Changes in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) of T. cruzi and tissue culture cells during their interaction have been demons...
Calcium Regulation and Signaling in Apicomplexan Parasites
Kisaburo Nagamune, Silvia N. Moreno, Eduardo N. Chini and L. David Sibley
Apicomplexan parasites rely on calcium-mediated signaling for a variety of vital functions including protein secretion, motility, cell invasion, and differentiation. These functions are controlled by a variety of specialized systems for uptake and release of calcium, which acts as a second messenger...
Current and Emerging Approaches to Studying Invasion in Apicomplexan Parasites
Jeffrey Mital and Gary E. Ward
In this chapter, we outline the tools and techniques available to study the process of host cell invasion by apicomplexan parasites and we provide specific examples of how these methods have been used to further our understanding of apicomplexan invasive mechanisms. Throughout the chapter we focus o...
Development of a Toolkit for Manipulating Malaria Vectors
Flaminia Catteruccia, Anthony E. Brown, Elisa Petris, Christina Scali and Andrea Crisanti
This chapter will review the efforts made by several laboratories to generate in Anopheles mosquitoes a variety of molecular tools, similar to those available to the Drosophila community, to exploit the knowledge originating from the A. gambiae genome sequence. In particular, we will describe the...
Distinct Mechanisms Operate to Control Stagespecific and Cellcycle Dependent Gene Expression in Trypanosoma cruzi
Maria Carolina Q. Barbosa Elias, Rafael Marques Porto, Marcella Faria and Sergio Schenkman
Proliferation and differentiation are key events for the establishment of infection by Trypanosoma cruzi and consequently, for the pathogenesis of Chagas' disease. Therefore the understanding of these processes at the molecular level is important for the design o...
Down-Modulation of Proinflammatory Signal Transduction in Toxoplasma gondii-Infected Macrophages
Barbara A. Butcher, Leesun Kim, Chiang W. Lee and Eric Y. Denkers
Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic apicomplexan parasite that displays a broad host range and high prevalence among humans and animals worldwide. Successful parasitism requires Toxoplasma to ensure its quiet existence within the host, at least until further transmission. Thus, the parasite treads...
Effector Functions of Macrophages in Plasmodium Parasite Infections
Mariela Segura, Rebecca Ing, Zhong Su, Neeta Thawani and Mary Stevenson
Malaria, due to infection with protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium, is a major cause of high morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The multiplication of Plasmodium parasites in host red blood cells (RBC) during the asexual blood stage results in the severe symp...
Effector Mechanisms of Macrophages Infected with Trypanosoma cruzi
Fredy R.S. Gutierrez, Flavia S. Mariano, Isabel K.F. Miranda-Santos and João S. Silva
The main effector mechanisms that control infection by T. cruzi depend upon activation of macrophages. These cells are activated soon after infection by mechanisms that are dependent on production of several cytokines and chemokines. Once activated, macrophages, as well other cells of the innate imm...
Erythrocyte Invasion by Plasmodium falciparum: Multiple Ligand-Receptor Interactions and Phenotypic Switching
Manoj Duraisingh, Tiffany DeSimone, Cameron Jennings, Philippe Refour and Chenwei Wu
Infection with the protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum causes the most severe form of human malaria with over two million deaths per year. The clinical symptoms of malaria infection result from the rapid exponential expansion of parasites during the asexual erythrocytic phase of the P. falcipar...
Ethics and Community Engagement for GM Insect Vector Release
Darryl Macer
The ethical, social and legal issues raised by the release of genetically modified insect vectors in public health need to be considered in depth at an early stage in the development of protocols to field test GM insects. This paper also examines the use of GM technology applied to mosquitoes for...
Everything (or Almost Everything) You Want to Know about Genetically Modified Mosquitoes for Malaria Control but Are (Maybe) Afraid to Ask
Christophe Boëte
This chapter is a brief introduction to the book “Genetically Modified Mosquitoes for Malaria Control”.
Genetic Diversity of Trypanosoma cruzi and the Epidemiology of Chagas Disease
Michael A Miles, Matthew Yeo and Michael Gaunt
The complex epidemiology of Chagas disease is not fully understood. It has been suggested that distinct genotypes of Trypanosoma cruzi may cause the severe (megasyndromes) and benign forms of chronic Chagas disease, which appear to differ in geographical distribution. Mult...
Genetically-Modified Mosquitoes for Malaria Control: Requirements to be Considered Before Field Releases
Yeya T. Touré and Bart G.J. Knols
The technical feasibility of the development of transgenic mosquitoes highly refractory to (rodent) malaria parasites has been demonstrated in the laboratory. Following this proof of principle, genetic control of vectors could have an important role to play in the interruption of transmission of hum...
Genomic Rearrangements: A Bubbling Source of Information for the Molecular Epidemiology of Trypanosomatids
Jean-Claude Dujardin
During recent years, molecular epidemiology emerged from the integration between molecular biology into traditional epidemiologic research (http://www.pitt.edu/~kkr/task.html). This integration represents one of the richnesses of this new discipline, but also constitutes a major challenge, molecular...
Host Cell Actin Remodeling in Response to Cryptosporidium
Steven P. O’Hara, Aaron J. Small, Xian-Ming Chen and Nicholas F. LaRusso
Despite sporadic reports of Cryptosporidium infection throughout the 1900s, the clinical significance of this parasite in humans was not recognized until the first document- ed human diagnosis of C. parvum in 1976,1,2 and the subsequent realization that as an opportunistic infectious agent, Cry...
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