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Zoonoses and Geomedical Factors
Published in Jul Låg, Geomedicine, 2017
Babesia bovis has, as its name implies, its main host in cattle, where it causes high fever, increased heart rate, fatigue, and discolored mucous membranes and urine. Older, mismanaged animals have the least resistance against the disease. Babesia bovis also occurs in the temperate zone. In Norway, the disease is seen along the southwest coast, but is never found in the hinterland.7 In Germany, the disease also is seen at some distance from the sea, partly in swampy forests and bush vegetation. In both countries in the fall, the occurrence of the disease is clearly related to the living conditions of the tick Ixodes ricinus, the main transmitter of babesia bovis. The larva, the nymph, and the imago suck blood, which is necessary for their further development and function. Animals raised in a babesia area get the disease with milder symptoms than do cattle raised in a disease-free area. Where possible, bush and other breeding and hiding places for the ticks should be eliminated. The tick even transmits the disease to man, and is seen in Mexico, the U.S., Ireland, Scotland, France, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union.
How relevant are in vitro culture models for study of tick-pathogen interactions?
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2021
Cristiano Salata, Sara Moutailler, Houssam Attoui, Erich Zweygarth, Lygia Decker, Lesley Bell-Sakyi
Several studies used merozoites derived from infected host erythrocytes in attempts to propagate Babesia bovis in tick cell cultures. In embryo-derived Rhipicephalus microplus cells inoculated with infected bovine erythrocytes, B. bovis merozoite numbers increased ~20-fold over two days, but resembled the blood forms more closely than those of the gut or salivary gland forms in ticks [164]. Using the cell-line BmVIII, B. bovis merozoites derived from parasitized bovine erythrocytes were found in tick cells both as phagocytized free organisms and in phagocytized erythrocytes which were all lysed by 72 h [165]. No replication of B. bovis was observed. In contrast, in an electron microscopic study of BmVIII-SCC cells inoculated with B. bovis-infected erythrocytes, sexual stages of the parasite normally found only within tick intestine were observed [166]. However, it was not clear at what point the parasites transformed to the sexual stage.
Immune Stimulation of RAP domain binding protein (rTgRA15) from Toxoplasma gondii
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2018
Min Han Lew, Rahmah Noordin, Mohammed Monsur Alam Khan, Gee Jun Tye
In a previous study, in vivo-induced antigen technology (IVIAT) was used in screening of a T. gondii cDNA library against patients’ sera, which led to the identification of a specific clone with a gene insert that expressed protein (designated as rTgRA15) reactive towards anti-Toxoplasma IgM produced during acute infection. The gene insert was expressed with RNA derived from in vivo (and not in vitro) grown T. gondii tachyzoites [10]. The gene sequence was 99% homologous to TGME49_269830; a T. gondii ME49 protein coding gene on TGME49_chrVIII from 5 586 338 to 5 589 238 (Chromosome: VIII) that encodes for the RAP domain-containing protein (GenBank accession no: 7895000). RAP domain is abundantly found in apicomplexan, and other eukaryotic proteins. It mediates a variety of cellular functions and parasite-host cell interaction, thus it is likely to be of high biological significance [11]. Studies also revealed that conserved RAP protein facilitates the survival and in vivo growth of other intracellular parasites such as Babesia bovis and Plasmodium falciparum [12,13]. Upon human infection, this antigenic protein is recognised by antibodies and ingested by the antigen-presenting cells that trigger a specific immunity against the invasion [14]. Due to these reasons, we hypothesised that TgRA15 might potentially be a candidate vaccine against T. gondii infection.
In vivo activity and atom pair fingerprint analysis of MMV665941 against the apicomplexan parasite Babesia microti, the causative agent of babesiosis in humans and rodents
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2023
Mohamed Abdo Rizk, Shimaa Abd El-Salam El-Sayed, Ikuo Igarashi
Female BALB/c mice aged 8 weeks were purchased from CLEA Japan (Tokyo, Japan) for use in this study and kept under specific pathogen-free conditions. The Munich strain of B. microti was maintained by a passage in the blood of BALB/c mice [9]. For the in vitro study, Babesia bovis (B. bovis) (Texas strain) [10], and Theileria equi (T. equi) (US Department of Agriculture) [11] used in this study were cultivated in purified bovine red blood cells (RBCs) and horse RBCs, respectively, using a microaerophilic, stationary-phase culture system [12,13].