Assessing the risks for stillbirth in São Paulo, Brazil: protocol for a multidisciplinary case-control study - FetRisks.

Stillbirth is a fundamental component of childhood mortality, but its causes are still insufficiently understood. This study aims to explore stillbirth risk factors by using a multidisciplinary approach to stimulate public policies and protocols to prevent stillbirth, improve maternal care and support bereaved families. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: In this case-control study with stillbirths and live births in 14 public hospitals in São Paulo, mothers are interviewed at hospitals after delivery, and hospital records and prenatal care registries are reviewed.

Understanding hypergammaglobulinemia in experimental or natural visceral leishmaniasis.

Nonspecific hypergammaglobulinemia (HGG) occurs in symptomatic human visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by L. L. infantum.

Evaluation of aversive behavior in Rattus norvegicus experimentally infected by two distinct strains of Toxoplasma gondii (ME49 and VEG): study of epigenetic markers.

Background: Behavioral changes in Rattus norvegicus infected with two strains of Toxoplasma gondii (ME49 and VEG) were investigated.

Methods: Rats were evaluated for motor activity and aversion or attraction to cat urine 60 days after infection. After euthanasia, arginine-vasopressin gene methylation in the central nervous system was evaluated.

Isolated specific IgA against respiratory viruses, Influenza or SARS-CoV-2, present in the saliva of a fraction of healthy and asymptomatic volunteers.

Objectives: Defense against respiratory viruses depends on an immune response present in the mucosa, as saliva IgA secretes antibodies. During the pandemic, such as influenza or SARS-CoV-2, most infected patients are asymptomatic but retain specific antibodies post-infection. The authors evaluated IgG and IgA antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and influenza in the saliva of asymptomatic volunteers, validated with controls or vaccinated individuals.

Toxoplasma gondii isolated from a Brazilian patient with rare pulmonary toxoplasmosis has a novel genotype and is closely related to Amazonian isolates.

Pulmonary toxoplasmosis is rare in immunocompetent patients. Herein, a Toxoplasma gondii strain isolated in Brazil from an immunocompetent patient who had severe pulmonary involvement was biologically and molecularly characterized for the first time. The TgHumIMTBr1 isolate was bioassayed in mice showing a virulent phenotype.

Zoonotic parasites infecting free-living armadillos from Brazil.

Armadillos are specialist diggers and their burrows are used to find food, seek shelter and protect their pups. These burrows can also be shared with dozens of vertebrate and invertebrate species and; consequently, their parasites including the zoonotics. The aim of this study was to diagnose the presence of zoonotic parasites in four wild-caught armadillo species from two different Brazilian ecosystems, the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) and the Pantanal (wetland).

Early high avidity specific IgG production in experimental hamster visceral leishmaniasis.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) by Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum is epidemic in Brazil. Hypergammaglobulinemia appears early in patients with VL and is ineffective. Usually, high-affinity IgG B cells are selected during most infections, a critical step for an effective humoral response.

Measles, rubella, mumps and Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in saliva of vaccinated students of schools and universities in São Paulo City, Brazil.

Introduction: Vaccines are well-established public health interventions with major impact on the prevalence of infectious diseases, but outbreaks are occurring frequently due to primary and secondary failures, despite high coverage. Surveillance of efficacy and duration of induced immunity is a difficult task as it requires invasive blood sampling in children and teenagers. Saliva can be an acceptable alternative source of IgG to assess vaccine efficacy and toxoplasmosis incidence.

Saliva collection and detection of anti- T. gondii antibodies of low-income school-age children as a learning strategy on hygiene, prevention and transmission of toxoplasmosis.

School-age children are a social group in which blood collection for laboratory testing can be perceived as an invasive procedure, with low acceptance and tolerance of stakeholders. This problem could be circumvented by replacing serum samples with saliva. For this purpose, and to make the collection of saliva samples playful and instructive for children, educational activities on hygiene and toxoplasmosis transmission and prevention were performed using toys and audiovisual tools.

Behavioral evaluation of BALB/c (Mus musculus) mice infected with genetically distinct strains of Toxoplasma gondii.

In relation to behavioral changes in rodents infected with Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), it is believed that the genotype of the infecting strain can have some influence. In this sense, the present work has sought to evaluate the effect of chronic infection by genetically distinct cystogenic strains of T.

CD19 LYMPHOCYTE PROLIFERATION INDUCED BY Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis IN C57BL/6 MICE EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED WITH Toxoplasma gondii.

Toxoplasmosis is frequently acquired through the oral route by the ingestion of cysts or oocysts of Toxoplasma gondii. Once ingested, the parasites penetrate the intestinal epithelial cells and rapidly disseminate to all organs in the host. During T.

HUMAN TOXOPLASMOSIS OUTBREAKS AND THE AGENT INFECTING FORM. FINDINGS FROM A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW.

Toxoplasmosis, a worldwide highly prevalent zoonotic infection, is transmitted either by the oocysts, from water and soil, or the tissue cysts, in raw or undercooked infected meat, of Toxoplasma gondii. An ongoing debate is whether there are differences between the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the outbreaks due to one or the other infective form of the agent. We performed a systematic review, recovering 437 reported outbreaks of which 38 were selected.

Canine visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas disease among dogs in Araguaína, Tocantins.

The present study analyzed serum samples from 111 male and female dogs of various ages from the municipality of Araguaína in the State of Tocantins, Brazil. Serological diagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) was initially performed at the Central Laboratory (Laboratório Central - LACEN) of Araguaína, resulting in 61 positive samples by an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IIFA) (≥1:40) and 50 non-reactive samples. The same samples were analyzed at the São Paulo Institute of Tropical Medicine (Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo - IMTSP) by an enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay (ELISA), resulting in 57 positive samples (51.

A simple immune complex dissociation ELISA for leishmaniasis: standardization of the assay in experimental models and preliminary results in canine and human samples.

Visceral leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania (Leishmania) chagasi, is a chronic parasitic disease of humans and dogs. Confirmation of the protozoal agent in bone marrow, lymph node or spleen aspirate is diagnostic, while specific-IgG serology is used mainly for epidemiology despite the general presence of high levels of serum immunoglobulin. Anecdotal reports of false-negative serology in active disease cases are known and are ascribed to the formation of immune complexes.

Quality control of Toxoplasma gondii in meat packages: standardization of an ELISA test and its use for detection in rabbit meat cuts.

Toxoplasma gondii causes severe disease both to man and livestock and its detection in meat after slaughtering requires PCR or biological tests. Meat packages contain retained exudate that could be used for serology due to its blood content. Similar studies reported false negative assays in those tests.

Preliminary report of HIV and Toxoplasma gondii occurrence in pregnant women from Mozambique.

Toxoplasmosis, a protozoan disease, causes severe disease in fetuses during pregnancy and deadly encephalitis in HIV patients. There are several studies on its seroprevalence around the world, but studies focusing on African countries are limited in number and mostly anecdotal. We studied two groups of samples from Mozambique by ELISA, using serum samples from 150 pregnant women and six Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from AIDS patients with encephalitis.

Increased frequency of anti-retina antibodies in asymptomatic patients with chronic t. gondii infection.

Purpose: To search for anti-retina antibodies that serve as markers for eye disease in uveitis.

Materials And Methods: Stored sera from patients with uveitis, ocular toxoplasmosis (n = 30) and non-infectious, immune-mediated uveitis (n = 50) and from asymptomatic individuals who were positive (n = 250) and negative (n = 250) for anti-Toxoplasma antibodies were tested. Serum anti-retina IgG was detected by an optimized ELISA using a solid-phase whole human retina extract, bovine S-antigen or interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein.

Serology using rROP2 antigen in the diagnostic of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women.

Toxoplasma gondii causes severe fetal disease during acute infection in pregnant women, thus demanding early diagnosis for effective treatment and fetus preservation. Fetal tests are inefficient and risky, and diagnosis is based on maternal IgM serology, which had weak screening ability due to increased sensitivity, with alternative IgG avidity tests. Here, we performed ELISA and avidity assays using a recombinant T.

[Serological evidence of acute Toxoplasma gondii infection in pregnant women in Cascavel, Paraná].

In order to investigate the incidence of toxoplasmosis in Cascavel, Paraná, a city near the region where the largest reported epidemic outbreak in the world occurred, 334 serum samples from pregnant women were screened using a commercial IgG immunoenzymatic assay at the Municipal Laboratory in Cascavel and were confirmed at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in São Paulo, by means of IgG immunofluorescence, immunoenzymatic assaying and the in-house IgG avidity test. The IgG seropositivity from the commercial test was 54.2%, from immunofluorescence 54.

Quantitative toxoplasma gondii oocyst detection by a modified Kato Katz test using Kinyoun staining (KKK) in ME49 strain experimentally infected cats.

We detected Toxoplasma gondii oocysts in feces of experimentally infected cats, using a Kato Katz approach with subsequent Kinyoun staining. Animals serologically negative to T. gondii were infected orally with 5 x 10(2) mice brain cysts of ME49 strain.