NRAMP1 Polymorphisms like Susceptibility Marker in Mexican Focus of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in Campeche state, Mexico. Host and parasite factors are involved in the establishment and development of CL. Host factors include immune response and genetic background.

Study of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the State of Campeche (Yucatan Peninsula), Mexico, over a period of two years.

Objective: To study cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), in the Calakmul municipality of the Campeche State, during two years.

Materials And Methods: Individuals with skin lesions were evaluated. Aspirates taken from the lesions were cultured, PCR was performed to diagnose the Leishmania species.

ITS1 PCR-RFLP Diagnosis and Characterization of Leishmania in Clinical Samples and Strains from Cases of Human Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in States of the Mexican Southeast.

American cutaneous leishmaniasis includes a spectrum of clinical forms localized cutaneous, diffuse cutaneous, and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis which can be caused by different strains of Leishmania belonging to the L. mexicana or L. braziliensis complexes which may coexist in the same endemic area.

Analysis of Kinetoplast DNA from Mexican Isolates of Leishmania (L.) mexicana.

This study analyzed DNA minicircles of Mexican isolates of L. (Leishmania) mexicana to look for genetic differences between strains isolated from patients with diffuse cutaneous (DCL) and localized (LCL) leishmaniasis. The kDNA was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction fragment polymorphism analysis of the PCR products (PCR-RFLP) and the PCR products were sequenced.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv induces ectosome release in human polymorphonuclear neutrophils.

Ectocytosis, the cellular process by which ectosomes (Ects) are released, is an important phenomenon by which eukaryotic cells exchange molecular information. Ects released from N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP)-activated human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) have recently been characterized. Molecules such as CD35 and phosphatidylserine (PS), and enzymes such as myeloperoxidase and elastase were found in these vesicles, suggesting that Ects from PMNs could function as ecto-organelles with anti-microbial activity.

Genetic similarity between cysticerci of Taenia solium isolated from human brain and from pigs.

Mitochondrial (mt) cox1 and ribosomal ITS1 DNA sequences from Taenia solium cysticercus isolates from pigs and cysticerci (racemose and cellulose types) from patients with neurocysticercosis were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The amplicons were sequenced in order to determine the genetic relationship between these types of cysticerci. Phylogenetic trees were constructed and evolutionary distances were calculated.

Lactobaciilus casei ssp. rhamnosus enhances non specific protection against Plasmodium chabaudi AS in mice.

Objective: To evaluate the capacity of Lactobacillus casei ssp. rhamnosus to enhance resistance against Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi AS.

Material And Methods: NIH mice were IP injected with viable lactobacillus casei seven days (LC1 group) or 7 and 14 days (LC2 group) before the challenge (day 0) with Plasmodium chabaudi parasitized red blood cells (pRBC).

Molecular studies of Onchocerca volvulus isolates from Mexico.

DNA from Onchocerca volvulus from Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico were used as templates to amplify members of the O-150 Onchocerca specific repeat sequence family. The resulting PCR amplicons all hybridized with OVS2, an oligonucleotide that has been previously shown to recognize amplicons derived from O. volvulus with 100% sensitivity.

Quantification of cytokine gene expression using an economical real-time polymerase chain reaction method based on SYBR Green I.

Assessment of cytokine expression has become crucial to understand host responses to infections as well as autoimmunity. Several approaches including Northern blot, RNase protection assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay have been used for this purpose, but they are time consuming, labour intense, and relatively large quantity of the samples is usually required. Recently, a technique termed real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has been developed to determine genetic expression with great sensitivity and specificity; however, specialized instrumentation and costly reagents are usually needed.

Molecular probes and the polymerase chain reaction for detection and typing of Leishmania species in Mexico.

Leishmaniasis in Mexico is a public health problem because all the clinical forms have been recorded in most Mexican states. We studied patients showing clinical symptoms of any form of leishmaniasis, from several endemic areas. Bone marrow samples, aspirates or skin biopsies were taken and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted and amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with universal primers AJS1 and DeB8, specific for the Leishmania subgenus Leishmania.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by members of Leishmania braziliensis complex in Nayarit, State of Mexico.

An epidemiological study was carried out in the northern Mexican state, Nayarit. Fourteen patients with possible cutaneous leishmaniasis skin lesions gave positive Montenegro skin tests. Biopsies were taken from the skin ulcer and analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with specific primers for the Leishmania mexicana complex; however all biopsies were not amplified.

Visceral leishmaniosis caused by Leishmania (L.) mexicana in a Mexican patient with human immunodeficiency virus infection.

A 36 year old male was admitted in December 1997 to hospital with afternoon fever, malaise and hepatosplenomegaly. He also had a dry cough, dyspnoea and anaemia. Pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis carinii and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection were documented.

Aetiology of visceral leishmaniasis in Mexico.

Two children with visceral leishmaniasis (VL), were studied by DNA analysis. DNA from liver biopsy samples from both patients, was amplified by PCR with broad primers specific for the Leishmania subgenus. DNA from the patient from Chiapas was also amplified with primers specific for the Leismania donovani complex and hybridised with a probe specific for L.

Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi: effect of low parasitemias on immunity in CB6F1 mice.

We examined the effect that low parasitemias have on the immune response of CB6F1 mice infected with Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi AS. Ascending parasitemias were stopped by chloroquine treatment when they were between 1.6 and 9.

Identification of Mexican Leishmania species by analysis of PCR amplified DNA.

Leishmania parasites isolated into culture from patients with LCL or DCL from four different Mexican states were characterised using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), hybridisation with specific probes, and isoenzymes. PCR of the parasites showed that 10 of 11 of those isolates were members of the mexicana complex. This was confirmed in seven cases by isoenzymes.

The spleen, IgG antibody subsets and immunity to Plasmodium berghei in rats.

The development of IgG subclass-specific antibody responses to Plasmodium berghei in spleen-chimeric rats were monitored to determine if there was any relationship between IgG subset profiles and resistance. Strongly immune eusplenic rats respond to challenge with P. berghei by producing high levels of parasite-specific IgG2a, IgG2b and IgG2c but only modest levels of IgG1.

Seroepidemiological studies of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Campeche state of México.

Seroepidemiological studies of cutaneous leishmaniasis were carried out in 169 individuals in a rural area of the Campeche state of México. Fifty showed cutaneous lesions suggestive of leishmaniasis, 70% were parasite positive and 96% skin test positive. An overall 40% positivity to skin test with Montenegro's antigen was found.

Protection of rats against malaria by a transplanted immune spleen.

A number of reports have suggested that the spleen plays a key role in the regulation of immunity to malaria but the role, if any, of other tissues is less clear. Furthermore, numerous functional changes occur in the spleen following malaria infection and it is not known whether the spleen's role relates primarily to its content of malaria-specific lymphocytes or to the altered structure and function that has occurred. To address these issues we have generated splenic chimeras by transplanting spleens between Plasmodium berghei-immune and naive rats.

Infection of BALB/c, C57B1/6 mice and F1 hybrid CB6F1 mice with strains of Leishmania mexicana isolated from Mexican patients with localized or diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Mice from the syngeneic strains BALB/c, C57B1/6 and (BALB/cxC57B1/6)F1 hybrids (CB6F1) were infected in the footpad with six different strains of Leishmania mexicana mexicana isolated from Mexican patients. Three Leishmania strains were isolated from patients with localized cutaneous leishmaniasis (LCL, the benign form of the disease) and three from patients with diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis (DCL, the malignant form of the disease). In BALB/c mice, four Leishmania strains showed a sustained fast growth from 4 to 5 weeks postinfection until the end of the experiment (15 weeks), and the other two grew slowly up to 10 or 12 weeks after infection and then started to grow faster.

Some studies on the experimental infection of golden hamsters with Taenia solium.

Golden hamsters were infected orally with viable cysticerci of Taenia solium obtained from infected pigs. After two weeks of infection implanted scolices of about 4 mm were found in exactly the same number as the number of ingested cysticerci. At six weeks 66% of the ingested cysticerci were found as implanted tapeworms (average size: 5.

[Recognition by immunoelectroblotting of antigens from Taenia solium and its larva].

Golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) were infected with cysticerci of Taenia solium. Groups of three were bled and killed weekly up to 15 weeks recording the number of implanted adults in the small intestine. A longitudinal study on the antibody response against adult and larvae Ags was carried out, as well as against Ags of H.