Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by blood-dwelling flukes of the genus Schistosoma. While the disease may affect as many as 249 million people, treatment largely relies on a single drug, praziquantel. The near exclusive use of this drug for such a prevalent disease has led to concerns regarding the potential for drug resistance to arise and the effect this would have on af...

Glycans present on glycoproteins and glycolipids of the major human parasite Schistosoma mansoni induce innate as well as adaptive immune responses in the host. To be able to study the molecular characteristics of schistosome infections it is therefore required to determine the expression profiles of glycans and antigenic glycan-motifs during a range of critical stages of the complex schistosom...

BACKGROUND In areas where schistosomiasis control programs have been implemented, morbidity and prevalence have been greatly reduced. However, to sustain these reductions and move towards interruption of transmission, new tools for disease surveillance are needed. Genomic methods have the potential to help trace the sources of new infections, and allow us to monitor drug resistance. Large-scale...

Resistance and susceptibility of Biomphalaria snails to Schistosoma mansoni sporocysts occur in different degrees. Histopathology reflects these differences. In a state of tolerance numerous sporocysts in different stages of differentiation are seen in the absence of host tissue reaction. However extensive diffuse and focal proliferation of amebocytes with sequestration and destruction of many ...

Among the large cells located in the posterior of Echinostoma caproni and E. paraensei miracidia are secretory cells, germinal cells (GC), and undifferentiated cells. Secretory cells do not give rise to progeny, whereas GC do. Undifferentiated cells develop into GC that can also divide to produce embryos. Cleavage of GC of E. caproni occurs only after the parasite has entered the snail host and...

Specimens of a species of cyclocoelid digenean inhabiting Jacana spinosa from the Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica, most closely resemble Haematotrephus facioi (Brenes and Arroyo, 1962) Yamaguti, 1971, in the same host from Aranjuez, Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica, in having confluent vitelline follicles posteriorly, diagnostic of Neohaematotrophus, and in pharynx length, ovary widt...

The characterization of Prosorhynchus crucibulum (Rudolphi, 1819) Odhner, 1905 egg and miracidium is important in order to better understand the transmission dynamics between the definitive host and the primary host, the mussel. In this way, the objective of this work was to study the miracidia morphology, in order to evaluate if this species belongs to the group of passive or active transmissi...

Effects of extracts of Euphorbia pulcherima and Atriplex nummularia on infection rate and cercarial production of The Bulinus truncatus infected with Schistosoma haematobium, as well as on the free living stages of the parasite (miracidia and cercariae) besides biochemical parameters of the snail were studied. The results showed that the LC25 of the extracts of E. pulcherima and A. nummularia c...

Eggs of Fasciola hepatica were exposed for 10 days to extremely low frequency magnetic field (ELFMF) at the frequency of 50 Hz and density of 2 mT (rms). The results show an accelerated hatching of F. hepatica eggs in relation to control (non-exposed) group. The host snails, Lymnaea truncatula, were divided into three groups; those of groups I and II were infected with the miracidia of F. hepat...