The effect of praziquantel treatment on the age-antibody relationship was studied in 174 children aged between 6 and 17 years from a schistosome endemic area in Zimbabwe. The children were co-infected with Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium with infection prevalences of 74% and 53% respectively. Antibody levels for the isotypes IgA, IgE, IgM, IgG1, IgG2, IgG3 and IgG4, directed against solu...

Diagnosis of schistosomiasis in migrants coming from endemic areas can be difficult, especially in asymptomatic subjects. Light-intensity disease, in fact, may be missed due to the low sensitivity of the stool microscopy and serologic testing cannot distinguish between a resolved infection and an active infection in patients who have been infected and treated in the past, because specific antib...

Cellular immune response was evaluated in 31 patients with chronic Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma mansoni infections and in 15 healthy normal persons by using S. mansoni soluble worm and egg antigens. Although the leukocyte migration inhibition test demonstrated false-positive reactions, the specificity of the leukocyte aggregation test was confirmed by the negativity of all of the con...

Schistosomiasis, one of the most important neglected tropical diseases worldwide, is caused by flatworms (blood flukes or schistosomes) that live in the bloodstream of humans. The hepatointestinal form of this debilitating disease results from a chronic infection with Schistosoma mansoni or Schistosoma japonicum. No vaccine is available to prevent schistosomiasis, and treatment relies predomina...

Genetic evidence suggests that the Schistosoma mansoni genome contains six genes that encode α1,3-fucosyltransferases (smFuTs). To date, the activities and specificities of these putative fucosyltransferases are unknown. As Schistosoma express a variety of fucosylated glycans, including the Lewis X antigen Galβ1-4(Fucα1-3)GlcNAcβ-R, it is likely that this family of genes encode enzymes that are...

Schistosomiasis is a chronic disease with considerable social impact. Despite the availability of affordable chemotherapy, drug treatment has not significantly reduced the overall number of disease cases. Among other mechanisms, the parasite produces PGE2 and PGD2 to evade host immune defenses. To investigate the role of PGE2 and PGD2 in schistosomiasis, we evaluated the effects of L-161,982, A...

Schistosomiasis remains one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the tropics and subtropics, but current statistics are outdated due to demographic and ecological transformations and ongoing control efforts. Reliable risk estimates are important to plan and evaluate interventions in a spatially explicit and cost-effective manner. We analysed a large ensemble of georeferenced survey data ...

Crossing experiments in mice with two human species of Schistosoma japonicum (Taiwan strain) and Schistosoma mansoni (Puerto Rican strain) were performed. The hybrid miracidia from the cross between female S. japonicum and male S. mansoni infected both Biophalaria glabrata and Oncomalania h. chiui. However, those from the reciprocal crossing could infect only B. glabrata. B. glabrata infected w...

In the present review, some aspects of the cellular response following the murine Schistosoma mansoni infection are described. Due to the peculiar route used by the schistosome to infect its definitive host, the skin appears as a critical site in which the initial events of the host/parasite relationship occur and where the immune response is initiated. Moreover, the induction and the modulatio...

Kampkötter, A., Ridgers, I., Johnston, D. A., Rollinson, D., Kunz, factors and protein hormones to cell surface receptors of the tyrosine kinase-associated and serpentine classes and trigger cytoplasmic signal W., and Grevelding, C. G. 1999. Schistosoma mansoni: Cloning and characterization of the Ras homologue. Experimental Parasitology transduction cascades that converge at Ras. Subsequent ac...