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Sent on Tuesday, 2010 Mar 30Search kinetoplastids OR kinetoplastid OR Kinetoplastida OR "trypanosoma brucei" OR leishmania OR brucei OR leishmaniasis OR "African trypanosomiasis"
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| PubMed Results |
| 1. | Mol Cell Biochem. 2010 Mar 27. [Epub ahead of print]Identification, characterization, and expression of a unique secretory lipase from the human pathogen Leishmania donovani.Shakarian AM, McGugan GC, Joshi MB, Stromberg M, Bowers L, Ganim C, Barowski J, Dwyer DM.The Department of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Salve Regina University, Newport, RI, 02840, USA, shakaria@salve.edu. Lipases have been implicated to be of importance in the life cycle development, virulence, and transmission of a variety of parasitic organisms. Potential functions include the acquisition of host resources for energy metabolism and as simple building blocks for the synthesis of complex parasite lipids important for membrane remodeling and structural purposes. Using a molecular approach, we identified and characterized the structure of an LdLip3-lipase gene from the primitive trypanosomatid pathogen of humans, Leishmania donovani. The LdLip3 encodes a ~33 kDa protein, with a well-conserved substrate-binding and catalytic domains characteristic of members of the serine lipase-protein family. Further, we showed that LdLip3 mRNA is constitutively expressed by both the insect vector (i.e., promastigote) and mammalian (i.e., amastigote) life cycle developmental forms of this protozoan parasite. Moreover, a homologous episomal expression system was used to express an HA epitope-tagged LdLip3 chimeric construct (LdLip3::HA) in these parasites. Expression of the LdLip3 chimera was verified in these transfectants by Western blots and indirect immuno-fluorescence analyses. Results of coupled immuno-affinity purification and enzyme activity experiments demonstrated that the LdLip3::HA chimeric protein was secreted/released by transfected L. donovani parasites and that it possessed functional lipase enzyme activity. Taken together these observations suggest that this novel secretory lipase might play essential role(s) in the survival, growth, and development of this important group of human pathogens. |
| PMID: 20349119 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] | |
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| 2. | Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2010 Apr;82(4):597-9.Leishmaniasis in the tongue of an immunocompetent man.Leitner V, Weingast J, Harmankaya K, Walochnik J, Pehamberger H, Petzelbauer P, Auer H, Binder M.Department of Dermatology and Department of Medical Parasitology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. A 49-year-old immunocompetent white man had a painful ulcer (1.5 cm in diameter) on the left ventrolateral surface of a grossly enlarged tongue. The ulcer was present for two months. Impaired swallowing resulted in substantial weight loss and fatigue. Histopathologic analysis of a punch biopsy specimen indicated numerous Leishman Donovan bodies within macrophages. A polymerase chain reaction confirmed the presence of L. donovani. Therapy with two cycles of liposomal amphotericin B over a three-month period was administered. Four months after discharge, the ulcer had healed completely and the tongue returned to its normal size and function. |
| PMID: 20348506 [PubMed - in process] | |
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| 3. | Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2010 Apr;82(4):591-6.Development of a Reverse Transcriptase Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Assay for the Sensitive Detection of Leishmania Parasites in Clin ical Samples.Adams ER, Schoone GJ, Ageed AF, Safi SE, Schallig HD.Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT) Biomedical Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan. Here we describe a generic, reverse transcriptase-loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay, for the identification of Leishmania species from clinical samples. LAMP is an isothermal reaction recently developed as a point-of-care diagnostic tool. Primers were designed in the conserved region of the 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene; amplification was visualized by the pre-amplification addition of fluorescent detection reagent (FDR) and a simple UV lamp. By using a reverse-transcriptase step, the system detected infections between 10 and 100 parasites per mL. The assay was tested on a range of nucleic acid extracts from Leishmania species, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) patients from Sudan, and cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) patients from Suriname. The sensitivity of RT-LAMP from the blood of VL patients was 83% (N = 30) compared with microscopy of bone-marrow and lymph-node aspirates; for CL patients the observed sensitivity was 98% (N = 43). The potential to use LAMP as a diagnostic tool for leishmaniasis is discussed. |
| PMID: 20348505 [PubMed - in process] | |
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| 4. | Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2010 Apr;82(4):588-90.First Cases of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Caused by Leishmania (Viannia) naiffi Infection in Surinam.van Thiel PP, Gool T, Kager PA, Bart A.Department of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine and Aids, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Section Parasitology, Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Ministry of Defense, The Hague, The Netherlands. Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Surinam is generally caused by infection by Leishmania guyanensis. We report three cases of infection with Leishmania (Viannia) naiffi, a Leishmania species not described from Surinam before. Treatment with pentamidine proved to be effective. |
| PMID: 20348504 [PubMed - in process] | |
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| 5. | J Biol Rhythms. 2010 Apr;25(2):92-102.Clock Gene Expression during Chronic Inflammation Induced by Infection with Trypanosoma brucei brucei in Rats.Lundkvist GB, Sellix MT, Nygård M, Davis E, Straume M, Kristensson K, Block GD.Swedish Medical Nanoscience Center, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Gabriella.Lundkvist@ki.se. African sleeping sickness is characterized by alterations in rhythmic functions. It is not known if the disease affects the expression of clock genes, which are the molecular basis for rhythm generation. We used a chronic rat model of experimental sleeping sickness, caused by the extracellular parasite Trypanosoma brucei brucei (Tb brucei), to study the effects on clock gene expression. In tissue explants of pituitary glands from Period1-luciferase (Per1-luc) transgenic rats infected with Tb brucei, the period of Per1-luc expression was significantly shorter. In explants containing the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), the Per1-luc rhythms were flat in 21% of the tissues. We also examined the relative expression of Per1, Clock, and Bmal1 mRNA in the SCN, pineal gland, and spleen from control and infected rats using qPCR. Both Clock and Bmal1 mRNA expression was reduced in the pineal gland and spleen following Tb brucei infection. Infected rats were periodic both in core body temperature and in locomotor activity; however, early after infection, we observed a significant decline in the amplitude of the locomotor activity rhythm. In addition, both activity and body temperature rhythms exhibited decreased regularity and "robustness." In conclusion, although experimental trypanosome infection has previously been shown to cause functional disturbances in SCN neurons, only 21% of the SCN explants had disturbed Per1-luc rhythms. However, our data show that the infection overall alters molecular clock function in peripheral clocks including the pituitary gland, pineal gland, and spleen. |
| PMID: 20348460 [PubMed - in process] | |
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| 6. | Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2010 Mar 25. [Epub ahead of print]Histone H3 trimethylated at lysine 4 is enriched at probable transcription start sites in Trypanosoma brucei.Wright JR, Siegel TN, Cross GA.Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA. Recent studies have identified histone modifications and suggested a role for epigenetic gene regulation in Trypanosoma brucei. The histone modification H4K10ac and histone variants H2AZ and H2BV localize to probable sites of transcription initiation. Although all T. brucei histones have very evolutionarily divergent N-terminal tails, histone H3 shows conservation with other eukaryotic organisms in 6 of 8 amino acids encompassing lysine 4. Tri-methylation of H3K4 is generally associated with transcription. We therefore generated a specific antibody to T. brucei H3K4me3 and performed chromosome immunoprecipitation and high-throughput sequencing. We show that H3K4me3 is enriched at the start of polycistronic transcription units at divergent strand-switch regions and at other sites of RNA Polymerase II transcription reinitiation. H3K4me3 largely co-localizes with H4K10ac, but with a skew towards the upstream side of the H4K10ac peak, suggesting that it is a component of specific nucleosomes that play a role in Pol II transcription initiation. Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier B.V. |
| PMID: 20347883 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] | |
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| 7. | Exp Parasitol. 2010 Mar 24. [Epub ahead of print]Leishmania donovani: Genetic diversity of isolates from Sud an characterized by PCR-based RAPD.Hamad S, Khalil E, Musa A, Ibrahim M, Younis B, Elfaki M, El-Hassan A.The leishmaniasis Research Group/ Sudan Institute of Endemic Diseaes, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan. Drug unresponsiveness in patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a problem in many endemic areas. This study aimed to determine genetic diversity of Leishmania. donovani isolates from a VL endemic area in Sudan as a possible explanation for drug unresponsiveness in some patients. Thirty clinically stibogluconate (SSG)-sensitive isolates were made SSG-unresponsive in vitro by gradually increasing SSG concentrations. The sensitive isolates and their SSG unresponsive counterparts were typed using minicircle kDNA and categorized using PCR-RAPD. All the isolates were typed as L. donovani, the resulting PCR-RAPD characterization of the SSG sensitive isolates gave three distinct primary genotypes while, the SSG-unresponsive isolates showed only a single band. L. donovani isolates from eastern Sudan are diverse; this probably resulted from emergence of new L. donovani strains during epidemics due to the pressure of widespread use of antimonials. In this communication the possible role of isolates diversity in antimonial unresponsiveness and the in vitro changing PCR-RAPD band pattern in SSG-unresponsive strains were discussed. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
| PMID: 20346944 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] | |
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| 8. | Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2010 Mar 24. [Epub ahead of print]Survey of natural infection by Leishmania in sand fly species collected in southeastern Brazil.Rocha LS, Falqueto A, Dos Santos CB, Ferreira AL, da Graça GC, Grimaldi G Jr, Cupolillo E.Laboratório de Pesquisa em Leishmaniose, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. In this study, we sought to identify sand fly vectors of the Leishmania species that circulate in distinct eco-epidemiological disease-endemic rural areas within the Espírito Santo State in southeastern Brazil. PCR amplification of a conserved region of the minicircle kDNA was used to estimate infection rates in field-captured, peridomestic female sand flies. Only 13 of the 1689 female sand fly specimens (0.77%) actually contained Leishmania DNA. Leishmania braziliensis infections were found in Lutzomyia intermedia and Lu. whitmani, and, for the first time, in Lu. fischeri and Lu. ferreirana. Interestingly, the high rate of genetic polymorphism of the L. braziliensis parasites in one of the disease-endemic areas that were studied may reflect specific transmission cycles involving different sand fly vectors. Copyright © 2010 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
| PMID: 20346478 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] | |
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| 9. | Rev Iberoam Micol. 2010 Mar 23. [Epub ahead of print][Sporotrichosis: prevalence, clinical and epidemiological features in a reference center in Colombia.][Article in Spanish] Adolfo Rubio G, Sánchez G, Porras L, Lorena Alvarado Z.Oficina de Docencia e Investigación, Centro Dermatológico Federico Lleras Acosta E.S.E, Bogotá D.C. Colombia. BACKGROUND: Sporotrichosis is a subacute and chronic infection caused by the fungus Sporothrix schenckii, which affects humans and other mammals. Clinical and epidemiological information in Colombia is scarce. OBJECTIVE: To describe clinical and socio-demographic findings and diagnostic tests, in patients with sporotrichosis from 1996 to 2005 in a national reference center in Colombia and to determine the institutional prevalence from 2002 to 2005. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a prevalence study, including patients with clinical diagnosis of sporotrichosis and at least one of the following criteria: positive culture with S. schenckii, pathologic diagnosis suggestive of sporotrichosis, or response to treatment with potassium iodide. RESULTS: Sixty cases were included, 67% were male, and 25% of them were farmers. The most affected anatomical areas were the forearms and hands (32.5% and 22.8%), respectively. Most cases came from the Cundinamarca and Boyacá areas. The cases presented as fixed cutaneous sporotrichosis and lymphangitic sporotrichosis. Differential diagnoses were: leishmaniasis and chromoblastomycosis. All patients were treated with potassium iodide. The prevalence for our center from 2002 to 2005 was 8 cases per 100,000 patients. CONCLUSIONS: The characteristics of our patients are similar to those described in other populations, with some differences. The culture continues to be the gold standard for diagnosis purposes. Potassium iodide is the treatment of choice in our Center. Copyright © 2009 Revista Iberoamericana de Micología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved. |
| PMID: 20346295 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] | |
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| 10. | Med Sci (Paris). 2010 Mar;26(3):227-8.[Leishmania donovani delays phagolysosomal acidification.][Article in French] Vinet AF, Descoteaux A.INRS-Institut Armand Frappier et Centre for Host-Parasite Interactions, 531, boulevard des Prairies, Laval (Québec) H7V 1B7, Canada. |
| PMID: 20346266 [PubMed - in process] | |
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