Schistosoma are dioecious digenetic trematodes carrying a large (270 Mb) genome. Gaining knowledge about the genome of these parasites is of importance for the understanding of their biology, mechanisms of drug resistance and antigenic variation that determine escape from the host's immune system. This review will provide an update on the Schistosoma Gene Discovery Program, which is part of the...

A murine hybridoma-derived antibody (IPH.134) has been produced which has apparent high binding specificity for an extract of Schistosoma japonicum adult worms. No binding was detected to extracts of S. japonicum eggs or to extracts from other adult trematodes (Fasciola hepatica, Paragonimus westermanii, Clonorchis sinensis, and Schistosoma mansoni) and several other helminths and protozoa. Whe...

BACKGROUND Praziquantel, an antischistosomal compound, is used as first-line drug for chemotherapy of Schistosoma japonicum since 1984. In this article, we conducted a systematic review and mete-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of different dosages of praziquantel (PZQ) for treatment of Schistosoma japonicum. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION A number of six articles published in peer-reviewed...

Blood fluke proteases play pivotal roles in the processes of invasion, nutrition acquisition, immune evasion, and other host-parasite interactions. Hundreds of genes encoding putative proteases have been identified in the recently published schistosome genomes. However, the expression profiles of these proteases in Schistosoma species have not yet been systematically analyzed. We retrieved and ...

We describe the design and report baseline results of a cluster-randomized intervention to determine the importance of bovines for Schistosoma japonicum transmission in southern China. The study involves four matched village pairs in Hunan and Jiangxi Provinces, with a village within each pair randomly selected as intervention (human and bovine praziquantel treatment) or control (human praziqua...

BACKGROUND Schistosoma japonicum causes major public health problems in China and the Philippines; this parasite, which is transmitted by freshwater snails of the species Oncomelania hupensis, causes the disease intestinal schistosomiasis in humans and cattle. Researchers working on Schistosoma in Africa have described the relationship between the parasites and their snail intermediate hosts as...

TO THE EDITOR—We read the photo quiz authored by Bagdure and Khasawneh with interest [1]. The authors described a case of schistosomiasis colitis caused by Schistosoma mansoni, which was diagnosed after review of hematoxylin-eosin– stained colonic biopsy sections. This case emphasizes the challenges associated with obtaining a laboratory diagnosis of schistosomiasis based on examination of ova ...

We have detected species, strain, and sex-specific genetic markers for the genus Schistosoma by Southern blot analysis of its DNA using cloned DNA segments of the Schistosoma mansoni ribosomal gene as probes. Restriction analysis of DNA from eight different strains of S. mansoni, from Africa and the Caribbean, revealed that the predominant or major DNA fragment containing the ribosomal gene uni...

Schistosomiasis is a major parasitic disease caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma. Several million people all over the world are estimated to suffer from severe morbidity as a consequence of schistosomiasis. The worm's eggs, which cause the symptoms of schistosomiasis, are generally used to diagnose the disease. In this study, we employed egg-based systematic evolution of ligands by ...

Schistosomiasis is a major human parasitic disease with a global impact. Schistosoma japonicum, the most difficult to control, can survive within host veins for decades. Mechanisms of immune evasion by the parasite, including antigenic variation and surface masking, have been implicated but not well defined. In this study, we defined the immunoglobulin-binding proteomes of S. japonicum using hu...