New developments in human African trypanosomiasis (Publications)
without parasite cultivation, eliminating a major impediment to efficient sampling for population studies. The finding that several wild animal species harbour T. b. gambiense, and that parasite transmission
Synthesis and antitubulin activity of N1- and N4-substituted 3,5-dinitro sulfanilamides against African trypanosomes and Leishmania (Publications)
brucei and L. donovani amastigote-like forms, surpassing the activity of compound 3 against these parasites by 3.4- and 1.9-fold, respectively. Compound 35 inhibits the assembly of leishmanial tubulin with [...] 5-dinitro-N(4),N(4)-dialkylsulfanilamides a promising new class of antikinetoplastid agents that act on parasite tubulin
Potent inhibitors of malarial aspartic proteases, the plasmepsins, by hydroformylation of substituted 7-azanorbornenes (Publications)
The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant strains of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum requires the urgent development of new therapeutic agents with novel modes of action. The vacuolar [...] are involved in hemoglobin degradation and play a central role in the growth and maturation of the parasite in the human host. We report the structure-based design, synthesis, and in vitro evaluation of a
<em>Strongyloides ratti</em>: in vitro and in vivo activity of tribendimidine (Publications)
third-stage larvae (L(3)) of Strongyloides ratti in vitro and against juvenile and adult stages of the parasite in vivo. S. ratti larvae incubated in PBS buffer containing 10-100 microg/ml tribendimidine died [...] administered to rats harboring a 2-day-old infection showed a moderate reduction of the intestinal parasite load. Three days post-exposure a significant reduction of the immature worm burden was found. A
Passive immunoprotection of <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em>-infected mice designates the CyRPA as candidate malaria vaccine antigen (Publications)
targets, we tested predicted Plasmodium falciparum open reading frames for proteins that elicit parasite-inhibitory Abs. This has led to the identification of the cysteine-rich protective Ag (CyRPA). CyRPA [...] gene from a diverse range of P. falciparum isolates. CyRPA-specific mAbs substantially inhibited parasite growth in vitro as well as in a P. falciparum animal model based on NOD-scid IL2Rgamma(null) mice
A high force of <em>Plasmodium vivax</em> blood-stage infection drives the rapid acquisition of immunity in Papua New Guinean children (Publications)
BACKGROUND: When both parasite species are co-endemic, Plasmodium vivax incidence peaks in younger children compared to P. falciparum. To identify differences in the number of blood stage infections of [...] values for P. falciparum. METHODS: P. vivax molFOB was estimated by high resolution genotyping parasites in samples collected over 16 months in a cohort of 264 Papua New Guinean children living in an area
In vitro interaction of artemisinin derivatives or the fully synthetic peroxidic anti-malarial OZ277 with thapsigargin in <em>Plasmodium... (Publications)
and artemisinin derivatives as well as the ozonide OZ277 (RBx11160 or arterolane) was evaluated in parasite cultures. The latter compound is an adamantane-based peroxide and the first fully synthetic clinical [...] indicating that activity of anti-malarial peroxides does not derive from reversible interactions with parasite targets
The genome of the heartworm, <em>Dirofilaria immitis</em>, reveals drug and vaccine targets (Publications)
The heartworm Dirofilaria immitis is an important parasite of dogs. Transmitted by mosquitoes in warmer climatic zones, it is spreading across southern Europe and the Americas at an alarming pace. There [...] There is no vaccine, and chemotherapy is prone to complications. To learn more about this parasite, we have sequenced the genomes of D. immitis and its endosymbiont Wolbachia. We predict 10,179 protein coding
Evaluation of <em>Plasmodium vivax</em> genotyping markers for molecular monitoring in clinical trials (Publications)
BACKGROUND: Many antimalarial interventions are accompanied by molecular monitoring of parasite infections, and a number of molecular typing techniques based on different polymorphic marker genes are used [...] reached 6% (MS16) or 13% (Pv3.27). To reduce the theoretical probability of superinfection with parasites that have the same haplotype as that detected at baseline, we propose to combine at least 2 markers
<em>P. falciparum</em> and <em>P. vivax</em> orthologous coiled-coil candidates for a potential cross-protective vaccine (Publications)
efforts are focused on the development of P. falciparum vaccines, the current availability of the parasite genomes, bioinformatics tools, and high throughput systems for both recombinant and synthetic antigen [...] antigen production have helped to accelerate vaccine development against the P. vivax parasite. We have previously in silico identified several P. falciparum and P. vivax proteins containing alpha-helical
