The guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) is a natural reservoir for Trypanosoma cruzi but has seldom been used as an experimental infection model. We developed a guinea pig infection model for acute and chronic Chagas disease. Seventy-two guinea pigs were inoculated intradermally with 10(4) trypomastigotes of T. cruzi strain Y (experimental group); 18 guinea pigs were used as control group. Eight anima...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES The severe toxicity, exorbitant cost and emerging resistance of Leishmania species against most of the currently used drugs underscores the urgent need for the alternative drugs. The present study evaluates in vitro anti-leishmanial activity of Plumeria bicolor and its isolated compounds. METHODS The in vitro anti-parasitic activity of chloroform extract of Plumeria bi...

background: although pentavalent antimony compounds are used as antileish-manial drugs but they are associated with limitations and several adverse complica-tions. therefore, always effort to find a new and effective treatment is desired. in this study, the effect of zno nanoparticles with mean particle size of 20 nanome-ters (nm) on leishmania major promastigotes and amastigotes was evaluated....

The authors began the study of cytokines or the so-called plasma activators of the acute inflammatory reaction in infections in September 1997. As far back as with the origina report describing the Chagas’ Disease (CD), Carlos Chagas (1911)3,4 , Gaspar Vianna (1911)15 and Okumura (1967)11 interpreted the etiopathogenesis of the Chagas’ Disease as follows. The first event is the invasion of the ...

recent scientific evidence indicates that distinct patterns of susceptibility in balb/c mice to leishmania major infection are attributable to the differential expansion of distinct cd4+ t-cell subsets and their cytokines production. production of the th1 cytokine ifn-g is associated with resistance, whereas production of the th2 cytokines il-4 and il-10 are associated with extreme susceptibili...

BACKGROUND Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Due to the prolonged duration of therapy, adverse effect and resistance to current drugs in the treatment of CL, the discovery of novel, efficient, and safe leishmanicidal drugs is required. The aims of the present study was to synthesis of new compounds based on the active compounds of 5-(...

Porophyllum ruderale (Jacq.) Cass. is a plant native to Brazil and in the northwest region of the state of Paraná, Brazil, aerial parts of P. ruderale have been used popularly in the treatment of lesions caused by Leishmania sp.. In this study the antileishmanial and cytotoxic activities of the crude extract, fractions, and isolated compounds from aerial parts of P. ruderale was evaluated. The ...

Leishmania donovani is the etiologic agent of fatal visceral leishmaniasis in man. During their life cycle, Leishmania exist as flagellated promastigotes within the sandfly vector and as nonflagellated amastigotes in the macrophage phagolysosomal compartment of the mammalian host. The transformation from promastigotes to amastigotes is a critical step for the establishment of infection, and the...

Leishmania major infection of macrophages is followed by a time-dependent appearance of lipophosphoglycan (LPG) that can be detected on the surface of infected cells by monoclonal antibodies. The origin of these LPG epitopes is probably the intracellular amastigote. LPG epitopes could be detected on the amastigote and the infected macrophage by a number of monoclonal antibodies directed to seve...

Leishmania species are the causative agents of the leishmaniases, a spectrum of neglected tropical diseases. Amastigote stage parasites exist within macrophages and scavenge host factors for survival, for example, Leishmania species utilise host sphingolipid for synthesis of complex sphingolipid. In this study L. mexicana endocytosis was shown to be significantly upregulated in amastigotes, ind...