Furamidine (DB75) and related unfused aromatic diamidines have proven useful for the treatment of parasitic infections. These compounds were primarily developed to combat infections by Pneumocystis carinii and African trypanosomes but they are also active against other parasites. Here we have investigated the in vitro effects of DB75 and its phenyl-substituted analog DB569 on two kinetoplastid ...

Kinetoplast DNA (kDNA), the mitochondrial DNA of the trypanosomatid Crithidia fasciculata, is a unique structure containing 5,000 DNA minicircles topologically linked into a massive network. In vivo, the network is condensed into a disk-shaped structure. Replication of minicircles initiates at unique origins that are bound by universal minicircle sequence (UMS)-binding protein (UMSBP), a sequen...

Viability of the tsetse fly-transmitted African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei depends on maintenance and expression of its kinetoplast (kDNA), the mitochondrial genome of this parasite and a putative target for veterinary and human antitrypanosomatid drugs. However, the closely related animal pathogens T. evansi and T. equiperdum are transmitted independently of tsetse flies and survive withou...

Trypanosoma brucei's mitochondrial genome, kinetoplast DNA (kDNA), is a giant network of catenated DNA rings. The network consists of a few thousand 1 kb minicircles and several dozen 23 kb maxicircles. Here we report that TbPIF5, one of T. brucei's six mitochondrial proteins related to Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial DNA helicase ScPIF1, is involved in minicircle lagging strand synthesi...

The Leishmania species cause a variety of human disease syndromes. Methods for diagnosis and species differentiation are insensitive and many require invasive sampling. Although quantitative PCR (qPCR) methods are reported for leishmania detection, no systematic method to quantify parasites and determine the species in clinical specimens is established. We developed a serial qPCR strategy to id...

OBJECTIVE To compare the diagnostic performance of seven methods to determine Trypanosoma cruzi infection in patients with chronic Chagas disease. METHODS Analytical study, using the case-control design, which included 205 people (patients with Chagasic cardiomyopathy, n=100; control group, n=105). Three enzyme linked immunosorbent assays, one indirect hemagglutination assay and one immunochr...

Trypanosoma brucei has a precisely ordered microtubule cytoskeleton whose morphogenesis is central to cell cycle events such as organelle positioning, segregation, mitosis, and cytokinesis. We have defined microtubule polarity and show the + ends of the cortical microtubules to be at the posterior end of the cell. Measurements of organelle positions through the cell cycle reveal a high degree o...

Lindera megaphylla has been traditionally used as an antineoplastic and wound healing remedy. We previously demonstrated the antitumor effects of D-dicentrine, a natural aporphine alkaloid from the root of L. megaphylla. To generate analogues, series of phenanthrene alkaloids from D-dicentrine were synthesized by degradation with ethyl chloroformate in pyridine, base hydrolysis, and N-alkylatio...

We study theoretically the replication of Kinetoplast DNA consisting of several thousands separate mini-circles found in organisms of the class Kinetoplastida. When the cell is not actively dividing these are topologically connected in a marginally linked network of rings with only one connected component. During cell division each mini-circle is removed from the network, duplicated and then re...

Trypanosoma anguiformis n. sp. and Trypanosoma polygranularis n. sp. are described from the African olive sunbird, Cyanomitra olivacea, and Latham's forest francolin, Francolinus lathami, respectively, based on the morphology of their hematozoic trypomastigotes and partial sequences of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene. Both new species belong to the group of small non-striated avian trypano...