In regions with high prevalence, Blastocystis hominis is frequently found in association with Entamoeba histolytica/E. dispar in xenic cultures. Its exacerbated growth is often superimposed on the growth of amebas, thus impeding the continuation of the amebas in the culture, within a few generations. The present study reports on the excellent efficacy (100%) of the antifungal agent miconazole i...

Entamoeba histolytica infection is the third-greatest parasitic disease responsible for death in the world. Amoebic infections result either in a harmless colonization of the intestine, or in an amoebiosis with invasion and damage of the intestine, liver, lung, and brain. These distinct manifestations are due to the existence of Entamoeba histolytica alone or with Entamoeba dispar as a complex ...

A growth-promoting factor (GPF) that promotes the growth of Entamoeba dispar under axenic culture conditions was found in fractions of mitochondria (Mt), hydrogenosomes (Hg) and chloroplasts (Cp) obtained from cells of six different protozoan, mammalian and plant species. We were able to extract the GPF from the Cp-rich leaf cells of a plant (spiderwort: Commelina communis L.) in an acetone-sol...

Amoebiasis is a common and life-threatening disease. The discrimination of the pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica from the non-pathogenic Entamoeba dispar could be done by advanced methods such as enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and PCR. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of amoebiasis in Izmir province, and differentiate the Entamoeba species by PCR and EIA. Stool samples of 2,047 ...

BACKGROUND The level of intra-species genetic variation in Entamoeba histolytica, Entamoeba dispar and Entamoeba moshkovskii populations in a localized geographic area, like Puducherry, India, remains unknown. METHODS In the present study the existence of genetic variation in the nested multiplex polymerase chain reaction (NM-PCR) amplified region of the 16S-like ribosomal RNA genes of E. his...

Introduction The intestinal protozoa Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, and Cryptosporidium spp. are the causative agents of giardiasis, amebiasis, and cryptosporidiosis, respectively. Adequate knowledge of the geographical distribution of parasites and the demographic variables that influence their prevalence is important for effective control of infection in at-risk populations. Methods ...

BACKGROUND Entamoeba moshkovskii is prevalent in developing countries and morphologically indistinguishable from pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica and nonpathogenic Entamoeba dispar. It is not known if E. moshkovskii is pathogenic. METHODS Mice were intracecally challenged with the trophozoites of each Entamoeba spp. to test the ability to cause diarrhea, and infants in Bangladesh were prospec...

The gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) is nonpermissive for Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcNPV) infection. We previously isolated a gene, host range factor 1 (hrf-1), from L. dispar nucleopolyhedrovirus that promotes AcNPV replication in Ld652Y cells, a nonpermissive L. dispar cell line (S. M. Thiem, X. Du, M. E. Quentin, and M. M. Berner, J. Virol. 70:2221-2229, 1996). In the presen...

BACKGROUND We examined a molecular method with a single-PCR for amplification of a part of CP5 gene enabling us to differentiate the pathogenic species, Entamoeba histolytica, from the non-pathogenic species, E. dispar. METHODS We developed a single PCR method for this purpose. After investigation of GenBank, primer pairs were designed from highly conserved regions of cysteine proteinase (CP5...

Background Amoebiasis, the cause of dysentery and extra-intestinal abscesses, now becomes second fatal parasitic disease in the world. As routine microscopic diagnosis cannot differentiate causative Entamoeba histolytica from non-pathogenic E. dispar and E. moshkovskii, better diagnosis has to be searched. Materials and Methods Multiplex single round PCR was tested and compared with results o...