What's new for 'Trypanosomatids' in PubMed

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Search kinetoplastids OR kinetoplastid OR Kinetoplastida OR "trypanosoma brucei" OR leishmania OR brucei OR leishmaniasis OR "African trypanosomiasis"
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PubMed Results

Items 1 - 5 of 5

1.	Eur J Immunol. 2011 Apr 14. doi: 10.1002/eji.201040994. [Epub ahead of print] Mast cells promote Th1 and Th17 responses by modulating dendritic cell maturation and function. Dudeck A, Suender CA, Kostka SL, von Stebut E, Maurer M. Institute for Immunology, University of Technology Dresden, Medical Faculty Carl-Gustav Carus, 01307 Dresden, Germany; Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Allergie-Centrum-Charité, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany. anne.dudeck@tu-dresden.de. Abstract Mast cells (MCs) play an important role in the regulation of protective adaptive immune responses against pathogens. However, it is still unclear whether MCs promote such host defense responses via direct effects on T cells or rather by modifying the functions of antigen presenting cells. To identify the underlying mechanisms of the immunoregulatory capacity of MCs, we investigated the impact of MCs on dendritic cell (DC) maturation and function. We found that murine peritoneal MCs undergo a direct crosstalk with immature DCs that induced DC maturation as evidenced by enhanced expression of costimulatory molecules. Furthermore, MC/DC interaction resulted in the release of the T-cell modulating cytokines IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-6 and TGF-β into coculture supernatants and increased IL-12p70, IFN-γ, IL-6 and TGF-β secretion of LPS-matured DCs. Such MC-"primed" DCs subsequently induced efficient CD4(+) T-cell proliferation. Surprisingly, we observed that MC-primed DCs stimulated CD4(+) T cells to release high levels of IFN-γ and IL-17, demonstrating that MCs promote Th1 and Th17 responses. Confirming our in vitro findings, we found that the enhanced disease progression of MC-deficient mice in Leishmania major infection is correlated with impaired induction of both Th1 and Th17 cells. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
	PMID: 21491417 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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2.	Parasit Vectors. 2011 Apr 13;4(1):58. [Epub ahead of print] Canine leishmaniosis and its relationship to human visceral leishmaniasis in Eastern Uzbekistan. Kovalenko DA, Razakov SA, Ponirovsky EN, Warburg A, Nasyrova RM, Ponomareva VI, Fatullaeva AA, Nasereddin A, Klement E, Alam MZ, Schnur LF, Jaffe CL, Schonian G, Baneth G. Abstract ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The Namangan Region in the Pap District, located in Eastern Uzbekistan is the main focus of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Uzbekistan. In total, 28 cases of human VL were registered during 2006-2008 in this region. A study on the epidemiology of VL in this area was carried out in 2007-2008 in the villages of Chodak, Oltinkan, Gulistan and Chorkesar located at elevations of 900-1200 above sea level. RESULTS: A total of 162 dogs were tested for Leishmania infection. Blood was drawn for serology and PCR. When clinical signs of the disease were present, aspirates from lymph nodes and the spleen were taken. Forty-two dogs (25.9%) had clinical signs suggestive of VL and 51 (31.5%) were sero-positive. ITS-1 PCR was performed for 135 dogs using blood and tissue samples and 40 (29.6%) of them were PCR-positive. Leishmanial parasites were cultured from lymph node or spleen aspirates from 10 dogs. Eight Leishmania strains isolated from dogs were typed by multi-locus microsatellite typing (MLMT) and by multilocus enzyme electrophoretic analysis (MLEE), using a 15 enzyme system. These analyses revealed that the strains belong to the most common zymodeme of L. infantum, i.e., MON-1, and form a unique group when compared to MON-1 strains from other geographical regions. CONCLUSIONS: The data obtained through this study confirm the existence of an active focus of VL in the Namangan region of Uzbekistan. The fact that L. infantum was the causative agent of canine infection with typical clinical signs, and also of human infection affecting only infants, suggests that a zoonotic form of VL similar in epidemiology to Mediterranean VL is present in Uzbekistan.
	PMID: 21489254 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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3.	Parasit Vectors. 2011 Apr 13;4(1):57. [Epub ahead of print] Canine leishmaniasis: the key points for qPCR result interpretation. Martinez V, Quilez J, Sanchez A, Roura X, Francino O, Altet L. Abstract ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Diagnosis and follow up of CanL is difficult since the range of clinical signs is varied and seroprevalence is high in endemic areas. The aims of this study were: i) demonstrate the advantages of Leishmania qPCR to diagnose and control CanL and highlight its prognostic value and ii) propose guidelines for tissue selection and infection monitoring. FINDINGS: This study included 710 dogs living in an endemic area of leishmaniasis. Forty percent (285/710) exhibited clinical signs consistent with CanL. Infection was detected in 36.3% (258/710) of the dogs of which 4.5% (32/710) were detected by qPCR, 16.2% (115/710) detected by ELISA and 15.6% (111/710) tested positive for both tests. Only 17.9% (127/710) of the dogs were classified sick (affected) with CanL. All symptomatic dogs with medium or high ELISA titers were qPCR-positive in blood samples. All dogs with inconclusive or low ELISA results with high or medium qPCR parasitemia values developed the disease. Seventy one percent of asymptomatic ELISA-positive dogs confirmed by qPCR (medium to high parasitemia) developed the disease. Bone marrow or lymph node aspirate should be selected to ensure the absence of the parasite in asymptomatic dogs: 100-1,000 parasites/ml in bone marrow are detectable in blood, whereas lower parasite loads are usually negative. Almost 10% of negative samples in blood were positive in conjunctival swabs. CONCLUSIONS: Because qPCR allows parasite quantification, it is an effective tool to confirm a diagnosis of CanL in (i) cases of inconclusive ELISA results, (ii) when the dog has not yet seroconverted, or (iii) for treatment monitoring.
	PMID: 21489253 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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4.	Parasit Vectors. 2011 Apr 13;4(1):56. [Epub ahead of print] Quantification of Leishmania infantum DNA in females, eggs and larvae of Rhipicephalus sanguineus. Dantas-Torres F, Stefania Latrofa M, Otranto D. Abstract ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Leishmania infantum is a widespread parasite that affects dogs and humans worldwide. It is transmitted primarily by phlebotomine sand flies, but recently there has been much discussion on the role of the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, as a potential vector for this protozoon. Recent laboratory and field investigations have contributed to this hypothesis, but a proof of the vector capacity of R. sanguineus has yet to be provided. Following a recent study suggesting that L. infantum passes transovarially from the female tick to her progeny the current study provides new evidence of the transovarial transmission of L. infantum in R. sanguineus. METHODS: Engorged females of R. sanguineus were collected from the environment in a dog shelter of southern Italy, where canine leishmaniosis is endemic. In the laboratory, 97 females that successfully laid eggs, their eggs and the originated larvae were subjected to DNA extraction and then tested by a TaqMan-based real time PCR targeting a fragment of the kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) of L. infantum. Results and conclusions L. infantum kDNA was detected in engorged females, their eggs and originating larvae, with a parasite load ranging from 1.8 x 10^-4 to 10.0 x 10^0. Certainly, the current study provides further evidence on the passage of L. infantum from R. sanguineus females to their offspring. The observation of promastigote forms in larvae is necessary to definitively confirm this hypothesis, which would raise interesting questions about the possible role of ticks in the maintenance of L. infantum infection among dogs in certain areas.
	PMID: 21489252 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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5.	Parasit Vectors. 2011 Apr 13;4(1):52. [Epub ahead of print] Infectivity to Phlebotomus perniciosus of dogs naturally parasitized with Leishmania infantum after different treatments. Miro G, Galvez R, Fraile C, Descalzo MA, Molina R. Abstract ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In Europe most dogs with clinical leishmaniosis are treated with leishmanicides, typically antimonials combined with allopurinol and good clinical recovery is observed in a high number of these dogs. Through xenodiagnosis, the capacity of a treated animal to infect the vector of the disease under treatment is assessed as a measure of the chemotherapeutic efficacy of the drug used. The objective of the present study was to evaluate through direct xenodiagnosis the infectivity to Phlebotomus perniciosus of dogs naturally parasitized with Leishmania infantum after treatment, and to follow the clinical and parasite course of disease. 32 dogs with clinical leishmaniosis were assigned to one of three treatment groups: meglumine antimoniate plus allopurinol (Group A), meglumine antimoniate (Group B) or allopurinol (Group C). During the study, the dogs were examined before treatment (Day 0) and bimonthly thereafter until Day 180 (six months post-treatment onset). RESULTS: The three groups were scored over time according to the effects of treatment on clinical signs and clinical-pathological variables. Significant differences in clinical scores were observed between Group A and the other two groups, indicating the combined treatment was the most effective. After treatment, bone marrow cultures were positive for the parasite in 30.8% of dogs in some of the check ups (3 or 25% in Group A, 1 or 11.1% in Group B, and 4 or 80% in Group C). Our xenodiagnosis experiments revealed that 15.4% of treated dogs were still able to infect sand flies at some point after treatment (2 dogs or 16.6% in Group A, 2 or 22.2% in Group B, and none in Group C). Only 7.7% of the entire study population could infect sand flies as from the second month post-treatment onset. CONCLUSION: The three treatment regimens tested significantly reduced the infectivity of dogs towards sand flies, thus diminishing the epidemiological risks of treated dogs both for human beings and other healthy dogs. Despite its low cure rate, the use of allopurinol after a course of leishmanicide treatment is proposed to keep dogs non-infectious during the disease transmission season (4-6 months in southern Europe).
	PMID: 21489241 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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