BACKGROUND Babesiosis is an emerging tick-borne infection in humans. The increasing numbers of reported cases of transfusion-associated babesiosis (TAB), primarily caused by Babesia microti, represents a concern for the safety of the US blood supply. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS This study investigated kinetics of parasitemia and innate immune responses and dynamics of antibody responses during B...

BACKGROUND Most arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are RNA viruses, which are maintained in nature by replication cycles that alternate between arthropod and vertebrate hosts. Arboviruses appear to experience lower rates of evolution than RNA viruses that replicate in a single host. This genetic stability is assumed to result from a fitness trade-off imposed by host alternation, which constr...

BACKGROUND The adhesion process of Borrelia burgdorferi to susceptible host cell has not yet been completely understood regarding the function of OspA, OspB and OspC proteins and a conflict exists in the infection process. AIMS The adhesion rates of pathogenic (low BSK medium passaged or susceptible rat joint tissue co-cultivated) or non-pathogenic Borrelia burgdorferi (high BSK medium passag...

For the last three decades, evolutionary biologists have sought to understand which factors modulate the evolution of parasite virulence. Although theory has identified several of these modulators, their effect has seldom been analysed experimentally. We investigated the role of two such major factors-the mode of transmission, and host adaptation in response to parasite evolution-in the evoluti...

The envelope (env) glycoprotein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) determines several viral properties (e.g., coreceptor usage, cell tropism, and cytopathicity) and is a major target of antiviral immune responses. Most investigations on env have been conducted on subtype-B viral strains, prevalent in North America and Europe. Our study aimed to analyze env genes of subtype-E viral s...

BACKGROUND Microorganisms are characterized by two types of resistance innate and acquired. Innate resistance is associated with the construction of the surface structures. Wide use of active substances as antimicrobial compounds, especially in inhibitory concentrations, may promote the acquisition of bacterial resistance to these substances in the process of adaptation. OBJECTIVE The aim of ...

Since the initial development of the "passage A" mouse leukemia virus in 1957, this virus has been propagated in our laboratory by serial passage in newborn C3H(f) mice. At the present time, 10(-2)-10(-3) dilutions in physiological saline solution of this mouse-passaged virus induce lymphatic leukemia in practically all inoculated mice after a latency of 3-5 months. On the other hand, when the ...

Viral vaccines can be produced in adherent or in suspension cells. The objective of this work was to screen human suspension cell lines for the capacity to support viral replication. As the first step, it was investigated whether poliovirus can replicate in such cell lines. Sabin poliovirus type 1 was serially passaged on five human cell lines, HL60, K562, KG1, THP-1, and U937. Sabin type 1 was...