Publications by authors named "Juliana Lopes Rangel Fietto"

Leishmaniasis is a significant public health concern, with dogs as the primary reservoir in urban scenarios and facilitating transmission. Diagnosing infected dogs is a crucial step for public health interventions, and the development of new diagnostic platforms can significantly enhance efforts in various regions worldwide. Given the limited availability of diagnostic methods in Colombia, this study evaluates the effectiveness of an Indirect Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) based on the recombinant protein rLicNTPDase-2 to detect Leishmania in infected dogs.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Current Brazilian diagnostic methods are inadequate, leading to poor disease control, which has prompted the evaluation of a new antigen, rLiNTPDase2, for improved detection.
  • * The study found that a Lateral Flow Immunochromatographic Assay (LFIA) using rLiNTPDase2 achieved a sensitivity of 86.9%, specificity of 62.5%, and accuracy of 76.9%, making it a promising tool for point-of-care testing in detecting CV
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The production of therapeutic glycoproteins is primarily expensive due to the necessity of culturing mammalian cells. These systems often require complex and costly culture media and typically yield low amounts of protein. Leishmania tarentolae, a non-pathogenic protozoan to mammals, has emerged as a cost-effective alternative system for heterologous glycoprotein expression due to its suitability for large-scale production using low-cost culture media, and its ability to perform mammalian-like post-translational modifications, including glycosylation.

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Visceral Leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania infantum, is a tropical neglected disease and the most dangerous form of Leishmaniasis. It occurs zoonotically, with domestic transmission posing risks to humans as dogs have high susceptibility and are natural reservoirs of the parasite. Given their epidemiological role, improvements are needed in diagnosing Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis (CVL).

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Article Synopsis
  • Leishmania braziliensis causes American Tegumentary Leishmaniasis (ATL), a significant tropical disease, and has two isoforms of the enzyme ENTPDase, which is linked to its infectivity.
  • The study focused on the recombinant ENTPDase2 enzyme (rLbNTPDase2), showing it has apyrase activity, can break down various nucleotides, and needs divalent cations like calcium or magnesium for function.
  • Characterization of rLbNTPDase2 revealed it works best at neutral to basic pH, is somewhat inhibited by certain compounds, and its low Km for ADP indicates it might be important for signaling processes, suggesting it could be a new
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Trypanosoma cruzi is the pathogen of Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease that affects more than 6 million people worldwide. There are no vaccines to prevent infection, and the therapeutic arsenal is very minimal and toxic. The unique E-NTPDase of T.

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Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease found in tropical and subtropical regions around the world, caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania. The disease is a public health concern and presents clinical manifestations that can cause death, disability, and mutilation. The parasite has promastigote (vector) and amastigote (vertebrate host) forms and kinase enzymes are involved in this differentiation process.

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Leishmania infantum, the causative agent of American Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL), is known for its ability to modulate the host immune response to its own favor. Ecto-nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase (ENTPDase) represents a family of enzymes that hydrolyze nucleotides and are involved in nucleotide-dependent biological processes. L.

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Melanoma is one of the most aggressive tumors, and its lethality is associated with the ability of malignant cells to migrate and invade surrounding tissues to colonize distant organs and to generate widespread metastasis. The serine/arginine protein kinases 1 and 2 (SRPK1 and SRPK2) are classically related to the control of pre-mRNA splicing through SR protein phosphorylation and have been found overexpressed in many types of cancer, including melanoma. Previously, we have demonstrated that the pharmacological inhibition of SRPKs impairs pulmonary colonization of metastatic melanoma in mice.

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The serine/arginine-rich protein kinases (SRPK) specifically phosphorylate their substrates at RS-rich dipeptides, which are abundantly found in SR splicing factors. SRPK are classically known for their ability to affect the splicing and expression of gene isoforms commonly implicated in cancer and diseases associated with infectious processes. Non-splicing functions have also been attributed to SRPK, which highlight their functional plasticity and relevance as therapeutic targets for pharmacological intervention.

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Cancers have a strong relationship with immune cells in their microenvironment, which significantly influences tumor proliferation and progression. Thus, pharmacological strategies that stimulate the immune system to combat tumor cells are promising for better therapeutic efficacy. Deregulated expression of the splicing regulatory serine arginine protein kinases (mostly SRPK1 and SRPK2) has been found in different cancer types, leading to the expression of isoforms related to tumor growth and metastasis.

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Lateral flow immunochromatography is a widely used technique for immunological assays. Construction of test and control lines is mostly done by antigen adsorption to nitrocellulose membranes, a process not fully understood. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of urea, salts, and Tween 20, on adsorption.

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Canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) is the most aggressive and lethal form of leishmaniasis manifesting in dogs and represents a major public health concern. Although there are sufficiently sensitive molecular tools for CVL diagnosis, they are not accessible at the main points of disease dissemination, in which context serodiagnosis has been used as an alternative tool on the epidemiological control. As an attempt to develop more accurate immunodiagnostic assays, many antigens have been tested over the years, on different platforms.

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Bovine alphaherpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1) is a pathogen causing respiratory and reproductive clinical signs in cattle. Infected animals may develop rhinotracheitis, vulvovaginitis, balanoposthitis, and abortion. Viral latency is generally established in neuronal ganglia simultaneously to a decrease in both genes or genome expression and viral replication.

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Porcine circovirus 3 (PCV3) is a recently emerged circovirus discovered in 2016 that has drawn the attention of the swine industry worldwide. In this study, we evaluated the genetic diversity of PCV3 strains on pig farms. A total of 261 samples from sows, weaning pigs, growing pigs, and stillborn/mummified fetuses were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR.

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Background: Canine morbilivirus (canine distemper virus, CDV) is a highly contagious pathogen associated with high morbidity and mortality in susceptible carnivores. Although there are CDV vaccines available, the disease poses a huge threat to dogs and wildlife hosts due to vaccine failures and lack of effective treatment. Thus, the development of therapeutics is an urgent need to achieve rapid outbreak control and reduce mortality in target species.

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Picobirnavirus (PBV) is a small two-segmented double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) virus that has been identified in diarrheic feces of a large range of animal hosts, including humans. For this reason, PBV has been recognized as an opportunistic agent of gastrointestinal disease. Even under these circumstances, there is a lack of studies regarding this pathogen.

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ENTPDases are enzymes known for hydrolyzing extracellular nucleotides and playing an essential role in controlling the nucleotide signaling via nucleotide/purinergic receptors P2. Moreover, ENTPDases, together with Ecto-5´-nucleotidase activity, affect the adenosine signaling via P1 receptors. These signals control many biological processes, including the immune system.

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The protozoan parasite Leishmania braziliensis is a major causative agent of the neglected tropical diseases Cutaneous and Mucocutaneous Leishmaniases in the New World. There are no vaccines to prevent the infection and the treatment relies on few drugs that often display high toxicity and costs. Thus, chemotherapeutic alternatives are required.

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Conventional treatments for metastatic melanomas are still ineffective and generate numerous side effects, justifying the search for new therapies. The antimetastatic effect of the named N-(2-(4-bromophenylamino)-5-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)nicotinamide (SRVIC30) compound has been previously demonstrated in murine melanoma. Herein, we aimed to evaluate its effect when topically administrated in a murine subcutaneous melanoma model.

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Canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) has been the theme of several studies given the importance of dog as natural reservoir of the pathogen Leishmania infantum in endemic regions and its role on dissemination of CVL and human visceral Lesihmaniasis (VL). The current immunodiagnosis of CVL has limitations concerning accuracy, specificity and sensitivity. Therefore, improvements are required.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists are looking for new medicines that can block two important parts of cancer cells: an enzyme called CD73 and a receptor called A AR.
  • They created a special kind of molecule that combines parts to block the A AR and also affects the CD73 enzyme.
  • Although the new compounds worked well on the A AR, they were not very effective on CD73, but this research is just the beginning for making better treatments for cancer in the future.
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The serine/arginine protein kinases respond to the EGFR-PI3K-AKT signaling module in the context of pre-mRNA alternative splicing regulation. These enzymes (notably SRPK1 and SRPK2) have been found dysregulated in a variety of cancers, which suggests them as promising drug targets in oncology. SRPK2 has been related to leukemia cells proliferation and found preferentially overexpressed in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL).

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Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is the etiologic agent of porcine enzootic pneumonia, responsible for major production losses worldwide. The bacteria have a limited metabolism and need to obtain molecules from the growth environment, which causes multiple difficulties for in vitro culture. These limitations have a negative influence on the ability to carry out research for the development of the rational use of antimicrobials and vaccines.

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