The role of the polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) in defense against leptospires has not been adequately studied, in part, because of difficulty in quantitating pathogenic leptospires. By using pour plates to quantitate nonpathogenic leptospires and the most-probable-number procedure to quantitate the pathogenic leptospires, we examined the interactions of nonpathogenic Leptospira biflexa and...

Leptospires, the agents of leptospirosis, exert tropism for the central nervous system, in the course of mammal infection. We evaluated the interaction between murine microglial cells and strains of pathogenic L. interrogans leptospires and non-pathogenic L. biflexa leptospires, mainly by flow cytometric assays. In the absence of opsonic conditions microglia are capable of ingesting--even quite...

leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with global distribution that caused by pathogenic spirochetes of the genus leptospira. accurate diagnosis for differentiation of leptospirosis from other pyrogenic infections prevailing in the same locality and is imperative for proper treatment. therefore a molecular diagnostic test with high specificity and sensitivity such as pcr is essential. gene encodi...

The minimal growth temperature of the pathogenic leptospires is between 13 and 15 C. The saprophytic leptospires have a minimal growth temperature between 5 and 10 C, or approximately 5 C below that of the pathogens. The capability of the saprophytic leptospires to grow at temperatures below those which allow the growth of the pathogenic leptospires provides a simple method of discrimination. W...

A novel antigenic protein of pathogenic Leptospira, Loa22, was identified by using the PhoA fusion method followed by immunoblotting with convalescent mouse sera. Loa22 was shown to be a lipoprotein having a C-terminal OmpA consensus domain. Loa22 was detected among pathogenic leptospires but not among non-pathogenic leptospires, suggesting the possible involvement of this protein in virulence....

BACKGROUND Leptospirosis is an important re-emerging infectious disease that affects humans worldwide. Infection occurs from indirect environment-mediated exposure to pathogenic leptospires through contaminated watered environments. The ability of pathogenic leptospires to persist in the aqueous environment is a key factor in transmission to new hosts. Hence, an effort was made to detect pathog...

I assayed the lack of reactivity of monoclonal antibody (MAb) F9-4 with nonpathogenic leptospires. Of 47 saprophytic strains tested, 46 did not react in an enzyme immunoassay and 1 was recognized by MAb F9-4, as usually reported with pathogenic Leptospira strains. On the other hand, the MAb did not react with one pathogenic strain, thus showing that the ability of MAb F9-4 to discriminate betwe...

Leptospira (L.) interrogans are bacteria responsible for a worldwide reemerging zoonosis. Some animals asymptomatically carry L. interrogans in their kidneys and excrete bacteria in their urine, which contaminates the environment. Humans are infected through skin contact with leptospires and develop mild to severe leptospirosis. Previous attempts to construct fluorescent or bioluminescent lepto...

Leptospirosis, caused by pathogenic Leptospira, is one of the most important zoonoses in the world. Several molecular techniques have been developed for detection and differentiation between pathogenic and saprophytic Leptospira spp. The aim of this study was to develop a rapid and simple assay for specific detection and differentiation of pathogenic Leptospira spp. by multiplex real-time PCR (...

Leptospirosis caused by infection with pathogenic leptospires, which is the most prevalent zoonotic disease in the world. The outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of pathogenic leptospires such as LipL41 play a crucial role in pathogenesis of this disease. Therefore a major challenge to develop an effective vaccine against leptospirosis is application of basic research on the OMPs of leptospires to i...