Sterols are necessary for the growth of trypanosomatid protozoans; sterol biosynthesis is a potential target for the use and development of drugs to treat the diseases caused by these organisms. This study has used (14)C-labelled substrates to investigate the carbon sources utilized by promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania mexicana for the production of sterol [mainly ergosta-5,7,24(24(1)...

BACKGROUND Leishmaniasis is a worldwide disease prevalent in tropical and sub tropical countries. Many attempts have been made and different strategies have been approached to develop a potent vaccine against Leishmania. DNA immunisation is a method, which is shown to be effective in Leishmania vaccination. Leishmania Soluble Antigen (SLA) has also recently been used Leishmania vaccination. M...

areas by La] et al. (1937) and Chopra et al. (1939). There is little to doubt that adulterated mustard oil is primarily responsible for the large outbreaks of epidemic dropsy. More recently S. N. Sarkar (1948) has isolated the toxic alkaloid, sanguinerine, from argemone oil and shown its capillary dilating and other deleterious properties in animals. Bailey, Robinson and Staunton (1950) have la...

Beukema et al. Introduce the genus salamandra comprising the well-known fire salamanders.

Using artifi cial insemination we studied the role of sperm number on relative reproductive success in the gynogenetic Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa). This species is unisexual, but depends on mating with males for sperm of closely related species (Poecilia mexicana and Poecilia latipinna) to trigger embryogenesis. The male genome is not incorporated into the female genome; inheritance is stri...

Surface phosophoglycans such as lipophosphoglycan (LPG) or proteophosphoglycan (PPG) and glycosylinositol phospholipids (GIPLs) modulate essential interactions between Leishmania and mammalian macrophages. Phosphoglycan synthesis depends on the Golgi GDP-mannose transporter encoded by LPG2. LPG2-null (lpg2(-)) Leishmania major cannot establish macrophage infections or induce acute pathology, wh...

We detected Leishmania mexicana in skin biopsies taken from a stray canine (Canis familiaris) and Texas mouse (Peromyscus attwateri) at two ecologically disparate sites in west and central Texas using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A single PCR-positive dog was identified from a sample of 96 stray canines and was collected in a peri-urban area in El Paso County, Texas. The PCR-positive P. att...

In the State of Campeche, Mexico, zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis is mainly due to Leishmania (L.) mexicana. The parasite population is maintained in a mammalian species, a reservoir in which the ideal course of infection should be long and relatively nonpathogenic. The objective of the present study was to document the retention of L. (L.) mexicana in 29 naturally infected rodents. These cric...

The discovery of an unusual specimen of Psorophora in Mississippi led to a search for new diagnostic characters on the seven United States species of Psorophora (Janthinosoma): Psorophora cyanescens, Ps. ferox, Ps. horrida, Ps. johnstonii, Ps. longipalpus, Ps. mathesoni, and Ps. mexicana. New characters were found and diagnostic descriptions and a new key are provided for identifying female spe...

BACKGROUND Leishmania is a pathogenic parasite which infects mononuclear cells in vertebrate hosts. Different strategies have been taken to develop immunity against Leishmania. DCs loaded with immunogenic antigen have resulted in different levels of Th1-type immune response and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) activity. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the potency of DCs primed with soluble Leishmania mexi...