Detection and quantification of pathogen-derived antigenic structures is a key method for the initial diagnosis and follow-up of various infectious diseases. Complex parasitic diseases such as ...leishmaniasis require highly sensitive and specific tests prior to treatment with potentially toxic drugs. To investigate the diagnostic potential of cell surface glycans found on Leishmania parasites, we identified diagnostically relevant glycan epitopes and used synthetic glycan microarrays to screen sera from infected humans and dogs. On the basis of the screening results, we selected a tetrasaccharide to generate anti-glycan antibodies. The corresponding tetrasaccharide-carrier protein conjugate was immunogenic in mice, and sera obtained from immunized mice specifically detected the Leishmania parasite. These results demonstrate how synthetic glycan arrays, in combination with immunological methods, help to identify promising carbohydrate antigens for pathogen detection.
Blood pressure (BP) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) has been reported to be lower than in persons in the general population. Data on arterial stiffness, which is an important risk factor ...for the progression of BP, are inconclusive for this patient population. Forty‐five adult patients with SCD and 40 controls matched for sex, age, and body mass index were studied. Brachial systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were significantly lower in the patient group (SBP 115.1±13.8 mm Hg vs 121.9±11.3 mm Hg and DBP 68.5±8.0 mm Hg vs 80.6±9.1 mm Hg, P<.05, respectively). Augmentation index (AIx), however, was significantly higher in SCD patients compared with healthy controls (24.9±9.6 for patients vs 12.4±10.8 for controls, P<.001), while carotid femoral pulse wave velocity was comparable between the two groups. The study shows that mechanisms other than arterial elasticity are involved in the low BP phenotype of patients with SCD.
We report the introduction of a rare zymodeme variant, Leishmania tropica MON-58, in Greece and the possible initiation of a zoonotic transmission cycle.
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•Introduction of Leishmania ...tropica MON-58 in the island of Crete, Greece.•The isolation of L. tropica MON-58 from a local dog.•The first record of L. tropica in a host, other than human, in Greece.•Local vectors (Phlebotomus similis?) can circulate this pathogen in Crete.
The rare zymodeme, Leishmania tropica MON-58, was isolated from a young Afghan refugee with a facial cutaneous lesion who had come to live in Crete early 2008. The same zymodeme variant was isolated from a local dog that had never travelled outside the island, with symptoms of visceral leishmaniasis, which stayed in the area where the patient worked during the summer months. This is the first record of L. tropica in a host, other than human, in Greece and another example of introduction of a vector borne pathogen in a focus where local vector/s can sustain it, with the risk of initiation of new transmission cycle/s.
Arterial Stiffness in Special Populations Pikilidou, Maria; Yavropoulou, Maria; Antoniou, Maria ...
The journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.),
June 2016, Letnik:
18, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Leishmaniases are vector-borne diseases transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies. Three species of Leishmania are found in the Mediterranean basin: Leishmania infantum, the most common species ...responsible for both visceral (VL) and cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL); Leishmania major, found in North Africa and Middle East causing CL; Leishmania tropica with a limited presence in Europe, causing CL. During the last 25 years, Crete has become an endemic zone for L. infantum with a high number of infected dogs and an increasing number of human cases every year; in the last 4 years, the incidence has reached an average of seven VL patients per year in a population of 600,000. At the same time, CL has re-emerged in Crete due to L. tropica, with an average of three CL cases per year in the last 4 years. Isolates were typed as L. infantum MON-1 and MON-98 and L. tropica MON-300, a zymodeme not reported before. Both VL and CL have spread to the whole of the island during the last 25 years, primarily in semi-urban and urban areas with altitudes of 0-50 m. The prevailing Phlebotomus species were Phlebotomus neglectus (proven vector of L. infantum) and Phlebotomus similis (suspected vector of L. tropica).
In this work, we investigated Greek Leishmania isolates (n = 70) for their individual MDR1-gene-related p-gp (belonging to the ABC-B subfamily of permeases) expression levels by means of flow ...cytometric analysis of Rhodamine 123 extrusion kinetics. Of all used isolates, 5.71 % express this drug-extruding ABC-transporter at alarming levels and are distributed widely over the country. Some 33 % of all examined isolates originated on the island of Crete though none of the strains showed vastly elevated p-gp extrusion activity, indicating a reasonable implementation of anti-leishmanial compounds in this part of the country. Compared to isolates obtained from canine tissue, human Leishmania isolates were superior both in size and in subcellular differentiation in flow cytometry. Furthermore, a specific t test confirmed verapamil hydrochloride to be a highly potent p-gp reversal agent with p < 0.0001. In a second test series, the loading of Leishmania with Rhodamine 123 was moreover reduced when occurring under influence of verapamil hydrochloride, a known p-gp reversal agent, indicating an ATP-dependant influx of the fluorescent dye and therewith the drug itself. In a final, third experiment series, it was shown that Sbⱽ does not act upon the promastigote form of Leishmania.
SUMMARY
Leishmaniasis and dirofilariasis are parasitic diseases of humans and dogs, worldwide, and they are often found as coinfections in endemic areas. Cases of human and canine dirofilariasis have ...being reported in Greece and leishmaniasis is endemic in most prefectures in humans and dogs. In most cases, dirofilariasis is established by parasitological (the modified Knott's test) and/or immunological methods, whilst for leishmaniasis molecular techniques and culture are also used. During an epidemiological study in Greece, 22·1% of the 5772 dogs studied were found positive by serology for
Leishmania.
Blood cultures of 165 (12·94%) of these animals produced
Leishmania
promastigotes and 26 (2·03%)
Dirofilaria
microfilariae (L1), whilst only in two (0·16%) both
Leishmania
and
Dirofilaria
L1 appeared. The aim was to assess coinfections by the two parasites in dogs in Greece, the isolation and survival of
Dirofilaria
microfilariae and
Leishmania
promastigotes using clotted blood (a fast, simple and low-cost method) and the survival potential of the two parasites in coexistence,
in vitro
.
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