In this issue, Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria publishes three articles about the diagnostic aspects of neurocysticerco-sis (NC). I think it is very important to discuss some aspects of this disease. WHO considers that NC is the main disease of the central nervous system (CNS) caused by parasites 1. NC may be the consequence of two distinct morphological forms of the larval form of Taenia soli-um...

Insoluble collagen fibrils were obtained from Cysticercus cellulosae after homogenization and treatment with NaCl/mercaptoethanol solutions and were solubilized after limited pepsin digestion. Solubilized Cysticercus collagen shows two different alpha subunits in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with an apparent molecular weight of 100,000 and is readily degraded by bac...

Neurocysticercosis (NCC), the cerebral presence of Taenia solium metacestode (Cysticercus cellulosae), is responsible for neurological disorders worldwide. In order to validate an immunodiagnosis for public-health patients in the State of Parana-Brazil, crude antigen of Taenia crassiceps metacestode (Cysticercus longicollis) was used as an alternative heterologous antigen to be used in ELISA an...

The sarcomas arising in rat livers at the surface of the cysts surrounding the tapeworm larvae, Cysticercus fasciolaris (Taeniu taeniaformis), have been extensively studied by Curtis, Dunning, and Bullock, (1). Recently in this laboratory, as part of a cooperative investigation sponsored by The International Cancer Research Foundation, a chemical investigation of the extractable components of t...

Considering the impact of cysticercosis on public health, especially the neurologic form of the disease, neurocysticercosis (NC), we studied the frequency of positivity of anti-Taenia solium cysticercus antibodies in serum samples from 1,863 inhabitants of Cássia dos Coqueiros, SP, a municipal district located 80 km from Ribeirão Preto, an area considered endemic for cysticercosis. The 1,863 sa...

Various immunization procedures were investigated in an effort to improve the number of hybridomas producing antibodies against Cysticercus cellulosae. Ten groups of 5 BALB/c mice were subjected to different immunization procedures and were bled repeatedly over a period of 68 days. The samples of sera thus obtained were tested by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay: total immunoglobulins, IgG and...