Colonization across the Galápagos Islands by the carpenter bee (Xylocopa darwini) was reconstructed based on distribution of mitochondrial haplotypes (cytochrome oxidase II (COII) sequences) and haplotype lineages. A total of 12 haplotypes were found in 118 individuals of X. darwini. Distributional, phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses suggest early colonization of most islands followed by...

Society is increasingly concerned with declining wild bee populations. Although most bees nest in the ground, considerable effort has centered on installing 'bee hotels'--also known as nest boxes or trap nests--which artificially aggregate nest sites of above ground nesting bees. Campaigns to 'save the bees' often promote these devices despite the absence of data indicating they have a positive...

1 Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Medical Campus, Jalan Sultan Mahmud, 20400 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Health Sciences, UniSZA, Gong Badak Campus, 21300, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia. 3 Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, 16150, Kubang Kerian,...

A piezoelectric immunosensor was developed for detecting Mycobacteria Tuberculosis (M. TB). Protein A was modified onto a silver-coated piezoelectric quartz-crystal sensor. Antibodies could be bond onto the crystal surface in an ordered orientation through protein A. An impendence analyzer was employed to record the admittance-frequency curve. The experimental results showed a successful and le...

BACKGROUND The ultrarush protocol is an attractive approach in the buildup phase of venom immunotherapy (VIT-UR). However, the degree of risk of VIT-UR in children remains unknown. The objective of this study was to compare the safety of VIT-UR in children and adults. METHODS We performed a study based on prospectively gathered medical records of children and adults with hymenoptera venom all...

BACKGROUND Although rapid venom immunotherapy (VIT) protocols have been shown to be safe and effective, this issue has not yet been clarified in Turkey. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the side effects of rush VIT as well as early clinical and immunological responses in patients with a venom allergy. METHODS Eighteen patients who had a history of severe systemic reactions af...

Severe allergic reactions during specific immunotherapy may occur in the treatment of hymenoptera sting allergy. The objective of the present study was to examine the characteristics of allergic reactions during specific immunotherapy in patients with allergy towards hymenoptera venom in the Iranian population. A prospective study was performed using the clinical reports of 27 patients with ana...

Specific immunotherapy (SIT) is widely used for treatment of allergic diseases and could potentially be applied in other immunological disorders. Induction of specific unresponsiveness (anergy) in peripheral T cells and recovery by cytokines from the tissue microenvironment represent two key steps in SIT with whole allergen or antigenic T cell peptides (PIT). The anergy is directed against the ...

The neurological complications of bee venom poisoning vary from optic neuritis to pontine hematoma. However, to our best knowledge, trigeminal neuropathic pain secondary to bee sting has not been reported previously in the literature. We report the case of a 52-year-old male patient with right-sided trigeminal neuropathic pain that began a month earlier, following a honeybee sting to the right ...

The induction of allergen-specific anergy in peripheral T cells represents a key step in specific immunotherapy (SIT). Here we demonstrate that the anergic state results from increased IL-10 production. In bee venom (BV)-SIT the specific proliferative and cytokine responses against the main allergen, the phospholipase A2 (PLA), and T cell epitope-containing PLA peptides were significantly suppr...