Publications by authors named "Franco H Falcone"

Article Synopsis
  • - Schistosomiasis, caused by parasitic worms, affects over 250 million people and primarily impacts the gastrointestinal tract, triggering a specific immune response linked to the formation of granulomas through its eggs.
  • - A study on hamsters explored the connection between the number of parasitic eggs and the immune response, analyzing egg load and cytokine expression in liver and colon tissues.
  • - Results showed no link between Th1 cytokines and egg load in the liver, while some Th2 cytokines exhibited an unexpected inverse correlation, potentially due to prolonged embryogenesis of eggs in the liver, which didn't occur in the colon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Relapsing fever (RF) remains a neglected human disease that is caused by a number of diverse pathogenic () species. Characterized by high cell densities in human blood, relapsing fever spirochetes have developed plentiful strategies to avoid recognition by the host defense mechanisms. In this scenario, spirochetal lipoproteins exhibiting multifunctional binding properties in the interaction with host-derived molecules are known to play a key role in adhesion, fibrinolysis and complement activation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A 1H-isoindol-3-amine was identified as suitable P1 group for the proprotein convertase furin using a crystallographic screening with a set of 20 fragments known to occupy the S1 pocket of trypsin-like serine proteases. Its binding mode is very similar to that observed for the P1 group of benzamidine-derived peptidic furin inhibitors suggesting an aminomethyl substitution of this fragment to obtain a couplable P1 residue for the synthesis of substrate-analogue furin inhibitors. The obtained inhibitors possess a slightly improved picomolar inhibitory potency compared to their benzamidine-derived analogues.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * An in vitro test showed that chitosans with high polymerization and low acetylation significantly reduce C. jejuni adhesion to human cells without being toxic.
  • * Treatment of contaminated chicken meat with chitosan led to a marked decrease in C. jejuni levels, indicating its potential as an effective antiadhesive agent in food production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Taenia solium taeniasis/cysticercosis (TSTC) is a foodborne, zoonotic neglected tropical disease affecting predominately low- and middle-income countries. Humans are definitive hosts for T. solium, whereas pigs act as intermediate hosts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Schistosomiasis is an infectious disease caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma and affects approximately 200 million people worldwide. Since Praziquantel (PZQ) is the only drug for schistosomiasis, alternatives are needed. By a biochemical approach, we identified a tegumentally expressed aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) of S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Traditional immunohistochemistry (IHC) has already become an essential method of diagnosis and therapy in cancer management. However, this antibody-based technique is limited to detecting a single marker per tissue section. Since immunotherapy has revolutionized the antineoplastic therapy, developing new immunohistochemistry strategies to detect multiple markers simultaneously to better understand tumor environment and predict or assess response to immunotherapy is necessary and urgent.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background & Aims: Schistosomiasis is a parasitic infection which affects more than 200 million people globally. eggs, but not the adult worms, are mainly responsible for schistosomiasis-specific morbidity in the liver. It is unclear if eggs consume host metabolites, and how this compromises the host parenchyma.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rat basophilic leukaemia (RBL) cells have been used for decades as a model of high-affinity Immunoglobulin E (IgE) receptor (FcεRI) signalling. Here, we describe the generation and use of huNPY-mRFP, a new humanised fluorescent IgE reporter cell line. Fusion of Neuropeptide Y (NPY) with monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP) results in targeting of fluorescence to the granules and its fast release into the supernatant upon IgE-dependent stimulation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multidrug-resistant is known to be one of the leading pathogens that cause severe nosocomial infections. To overcome eradication by the innate immune system during infection, developed a number of immune evasion strategies. Previously, we identified CipA as a plasminogen-binding and complement-inhibitory protein.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic neglected disease with praziquantel (PZQ) utilized as the main drug for treatment, despite its low effectiveness against early stages of the worm. To aid in the search for new drugs to tackle schistosomiasis, computer-aided drug design has been proved a helpful tool to enhance the search and initial identification of schistosomicidal compounds, allowing fast and cost-efficient progress in drug discovery. The combination of high-throughput data followed by phenotypic screening assays allows the assessment of a vast library of compounds with the potential to inhibit a single or even several biological targets in a more time- and cost-saving manner.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting more than 200 million people worldwide. Chemotherapy relies on one single drug, praziquantel, which is safe but ineffective at killing larval stages of this parasite. Furthermore, concerns have been expressed about the rise in resistance against this drug.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recombinant expression of proteins in the periplasm of E. coli is frequently used for proteins containing disulfide bonds that are essential for protein folding and activity, as the cytosol of E. coli constitutes a reducing environment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Immunoglobulin E (IgE) helps protect mammals from parasites and toxins and is important for allergies.
  • While IgE is used to diagnose allergies, it's not often used to diagnose parasitic infections, even though it could be helpful.
  • Researchers are working on new ways to use IgE for parasite diagnosis but need to be careful about which allergens they use for testing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Schistosomiasis is one of the most prominent parasite-induced infectious diseases, causing tremendous medical and socioeconomic problems. Current studies have reported on the spread of endemic regions and the fear of development of resistance against praziquantel, the only effective drug available. Among the species, only is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen (definitely cancerogenic to humans), causing squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder, whereas infection with is included in Group 3 of carcinogenic hazards to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), indicating insufficient evidence to determine its carcinogenicity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: IgE to galactose alpha-1,3 galactose (alpha-gal) causes alpha-gal syndrome (delayed anaphylaxis after ingestion of mammalian meat). Development of sensitization has been attributed to tick bites; however, the possible role of other parasites has not been well studied.

Objective: Our aims were to assess the presence, relative abundances, and site of localization of alpha-gal-containing proteins in common ectoparasites and endoparasites endemic in an area of high prevalence of alpha-gal syndrome, as well as to investigate the ability of ascaris antigens to elicit a reaction in a humanized rat basophil in vitro sensitization model.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

() uses several outer membrane proteins for adhering to its host's gastric mucosa, an important step in establishing and preserving colonization. Several adhesins (SabA, BabA, HopQ) have been characterized in terms of their three-dimensional structure. A recent addition to the growing list of outer membrane porins is LabA (LacdiNAc-binding adhesin), which is thought to bind specifically to GalNAcβ1-4GlcNAc, occurring in the gastric mucosa.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (TRPV1) receptor is an important mediator of nociception and its expression is enriched in nociceptive neurons. TRPV1 signaling has been implicated in bladder pain and is a potential analgesic target. Resiniferatoxin is the most potent known agonist of TRPV1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Parasitic infections, like urogenital schistosomiasis, can enhance the risk of bacterial urinary tract infections (UTIs), with specific focus on the role of schistosome eggs in this process.
  • The study explored the effects of a protein secreted by schistosome eggs called IPSE, which interacts with immune cells and might influence host responses to UTIs.
  • Results indicated that while IPSE did not significantly change bacterial levels in urine, it notably reduced UTI-related bladder damage and the production of antimicrobial peptides, suggesting its protective role in UTI pathogenesis without causing harmful side effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Infections caused by bacterial species from the genus Campylobacter are one of the four main causes of strong diarrheal enteritis worldwide. Campylobacteriosis, a typical food-borne disease, can range from mild symptoms to fatal illness. About 550 million people worldwide suffer from campylobacteriosis and lethality is about 33 million p.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: the helminth causing urogenital schistosomiasis, is a known bladder carcinogen. Despite the causal link between and bladder cancer, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. oviposition in the bladder is associated with angiogenesis and urothelial hyperplasia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Protein microarrays have been successfully used for detection of allergen-specific IgE in patient sera. Here, we demonstrate proof-of-concept of a solid-phase technique coupling the high-throughput potential of protein microarrays with the biologically relevant readout provided by IgE reporter cells, creating a novel allergic sensitization detection system. Three proteins (κ-casein, timothy grass pollen extract, polyclonal anti-human IgE) were printed onto three different polymer-coated surfaces (aldehyde-, epoxy- and NHS ester-coated).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The allergic phenotype manifests itself in a spectrum of troublesome to life-threatening diseases, from seasonal hay fever, through the food allergies, atopic eczema, asthma, to anaphylaxis. Allergy, that is an overreaction to allergen in hypersensitive individuals, results from the production of IgE, mast cell and basophil sensitisation and degranulation, requiring a range of medications to manage the conditions. Yet it is highly likely that allergy evolved for a purpose and that allergic diseases are accidental consequences of an insufficiently regulated immune response.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Degranulation of mast cells and basophils occurs after the cross-linking of FcεRI receptor-bound IgE by multivalent allergens, resulting in the release of a range of de novo synthesized and preformed mediators of the allergic response. β-Hexosaminidase release is usually measured as a simple readout for degranulation. Furthermore, the rat basophilic leukemia (RBL)-2H3 cell line is commonly used for measuring degranulation, monitoring β-hexosaminidase release.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Humanized rat basophilic leukemia (RBL) reporter cell lines are increasingly used for the detection of allergen-specific IgE and other purposes, such as the detection of allergens and standardization of allergen preparations. Existing reporter systems have many strengths and advantages but can be expensive or require longer incubation times. The new NPY-mRFP reporter cell line addresses such problems, as it requires neither expensive substrates nor overnight incubation for detection of activation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: fwrite(): Write of 34 bytes failed with errno=28 No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 272

Backtrace:

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_write_close(): Failed to write session data using user defined save handler. (session.save_path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Unknown

Line Number: 0

Backtrace: