BACKGROUND Cystic echinococcosis is an important zoonosis caused by the Echinococcus granulosus with a substantial impact in human and animal health in endemic areas. The purpose of the present study was serodiagnosis optimizing of dog echinococcosis in order to achieve a rapid diagnostic method. METHODS Eight dogs were challenged with protoscoleces in order to have positive echinococcosis se...

Abstract BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of Echinococcus granulosus in the definitive host particularly in dog is the significant complication in the endemic area. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is serological detection of E. granulosus in the infected dogs. METHODS: Dot-ELISA based on the copro-antigen and recombinant EPC1 antigen (rEPC1) for antibody detection was performed. Blood and fecal samples ...

Cerato-platanin proteins (CPPs) and hydrophobins are two classes of small, secreted proteins that are exclusively found in fungi. CPPs are known as chitin-binding proteins, and were recently also shown to form protein layers at air/water interfaces, but the features of these layers were not investigated on the molecular level yet. In this study, by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM), EPL1, ...

INTRODUCTION Wnt/β-catenin signaling activation has been reported only during the late steps of Barrett's esophagus (BE) neoplastic progression, but not in BE metaplasia, based on the absence of nuclear β-catenin. However, β-catenin transcriptional activity has been recorded in absence of robust nuclear accumulation. Thus, we aimed to investigate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling in nondysplastic BE....

Fungi belonging to the genus Trichoderma, commonly found in soil or colonizing plant roots, exert beneficial effects on plants, including the promotion of growth and the induction of resistance to disease. T. virens and T. atroviride secrete the proteins Sm1 and Epl1, respectively, which elicit local and systemic disease resistance in plants. In this work, we show that these fungi promote growt...

The Polycomb group of genes in Drosophila are homeotic switch gene regulators that maintain homeotic gene repression through a possible chromatin regulatory mechanism. The Enhancer of Polycomb (E(Pc)) gene of Drosophila is an unusual member of the Polycomb group. Most PcG genes have homeotic phenotypes and are required for repression of homeotic loci, but mutations in E(Pc) exhibit no homeotic ...

Squamous esophageal epithelium adapts to acid reflux-mediated injury by proliferation and differentiation via signal transduction pathways. Induction of the Wnt antagonist Dickkopf-1 (Dkk1) is involved in tissue repair during inflammation and cellular injury. In this study, we aimed to identify the biological role of Dkk1 in human reflux esophagitis with respect to cell growth and regulation of...