The debate on whether infection precipitates or prevents autoimmunity remains a contentious one. Recently the suggestion that some unknown microbe can be at the origin of some chronic inflammatory diseases has been countered by accumulating evidence that decreasing infection rates might have an important role to play in the rising prevalence of autoimmune disorders. The 'Hygiene Hypothesis' was...

Regarding harmful agents in livestock, parasites play an important role moreover it also effect 1/4th of the human populace by various zoonotic diseases (e.g. Toxplasma, Cryptosporidium, Trypanosomiasis, etc.). In livestock the parasites successful invade host immune responses, so early diagnosis of parasitic agents by various immunodiagnostic techniques is very important. Numerous immunologica...

The following chapter is one of a series of chapters in the volume entitled Infections of the Myocardium appearing in Frontiers in Bioscience. The full table of contents can be found at http://www.bioscience.org/current/special/tanowitz.htm. In this chapter, we review several parasitic infections involving the myocardium and pericardium. The most widely studied parasitic infection affecting the...

The mammalian immune system is continuously exposed to infectious microorganisms as well as innocuous substances in the environment. Depending on the genetic makeup, the innate and adaptive immune responses develop and determine the frequency and the course of infectious diseases. The immune response to an infection is initiated by molecular recognition of damage-associated patterns (DAMPs) by ...

Parasitic diseases affect billions of people and are considered a major public health issue. Close to 400 species are estimated to parasitize humans, of which around 90 are responsible for great clinical burden and mortality rates. Unfortunately, they are largely neglected as they are mainly endemic to poor regions. Of relevance to this review, there is accumulating evidence of the release of e...

conclusions rodents play an important role in the transfer of zoonotic parasite diseases, especially those that live near human habitats. control of rodent population in the city should be considered to decrease risk of transmission. results all studied rodents were infected at least by one parasite. the collected parasites included: three species of cestodes, eight species of nematodes, one sp...