Humoral immune responses against the malaria vaccine candidate antigen Plasmodium vivax AMA-1 and IL-4 gene polymorphisms in individuals living in an endemic area of the Brazilian Amazon.

Background: Several studies have recently demonstrated that the immune responses against malaria is governed by different factors, including the genetic components of the host. The IL-4 gene appears to be a strong candidate factor because of its role in the regulation of the Th2 response. The present study investigated the role of IL-4 polymorphisms in the development of IgG antibodies against PvAMA-1 and the IL-4 levels in individuals infected with Plasmodium vivax in a malaria endemic area in the Brazilian Amazon.

Enteropathogens detected in a daycare center, Southeastern Brazil: bacteria, virus, and parasite research.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and etiological profile of enteropathogens in children from a daycare center.

Methods: From October 2010 to February 2011 stool samples from 100 children enrolled in a government daycare center in the municipality of São José do Rio Preto, in the state of São Paulo, were collected and analyzed.

Results: A total of 246 bacteria were isolated in 99% of the fecal samples; 129 were in the diarrheal group and 117 in the non-diarrheal group.

No evidence for association of the CD40, CD40L and BLYS polymorphisms, B-cell co-stimulatory molecules, with Brazilian endemic Plasmodium vivax malaria.

Background: Plasmodium vivax is the most prevalent malaria species in Brazil. The parasite-host coevolutionary process can be viewed as an 'arms race', in which adaptive genetic changes in one are eventually matched by alterations in the other.

Methods: Following the candidate gene approach we analyzed the CD40, CD40L and BLYS genes that participate in B-cell co-stimulation, for associations with P.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a HIV-1-infected population from Southeastern Brazil in the HAART era.

Objective: To evaluate retrospectively the microbiological profile of Mycobacterium species isolated from HIV-infected patients attending the HIV/TB reference health care units in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil.

Method: Retrospective evaluation of all HIV-1 positive patients whose IAL-SJRP laboratorial analysis was positive for Mycobacterium sp. after diagnosis of HIV Infection, from January 2000 to December 2006.

Calicivirus and Giardia lamblia are associated with diarrhea in human immunodeficiency virus-seropositive patients from southeast Brazil.

To study enteropathogens, 100 fecal samples were collected from a Brazilian human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive population, with or without diarrhea. Giardia lamblia and calicivirus were significantly associated with diarrhea as were severe immunosuppression and the presence of at least one enteropathogen. No sample was positive for rotavirus and only one asymptomatic individual carried the astrovirus.

Mixed Plasmodium falciparum infections and its clinical implications in four areas of the Brazilian Amazon region.

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence pattern of mixed-Plasmodium falciparum malaria infections in Brazil by molecular diagnosis and to address its clinically important features. DNA was extracted from 115 thick blood film P. falciparum human blood positive samples using the phenol-chloroform method, followed by a semi-nested PCR protocol with species-specific primers.