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Parasite Versus Host: Pathology and Disease
Published in Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin, Parasitology, 2023
Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin
Anyone enduring a bout of giardiasis knows the unpleasant symptoms all too well; diarrhea, abdominal pain and weight loss are common. Some patients also experience fever and vomiting. Giardia lamblia has other tricks up its sleeve when it comes to the misery it inflicts. One of the more surprising is its recently discovered ability to indirectly cause irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Do I Have IBS?
Published in Melissa G. Hunt, Aaron T. Beck, Reclaim Your Life From IBS, 2022
Melissa G. Hunt, Aaron T. Beck
One cause of gastrointestinal problems that many Westerners do not consider is intestinal parasites. Intestinal parasites fall into two main groups – single-celled organisms (protozoans) and parasitic worms. One common protozoan parasite is giardia. Giardiasis (the condition that results after ingesting giardia, usually by drinking contaminated water) is characterized by diarrhea, abdominal cramps or pain, bloating, passing gas, and sometimes nausea. In most cases, giardiasis resolves on its own in seven to ten days. But in some cases, it becomes chronic, leading to bouts of diarrhea that come and go and frequently alternate with constipation. Sound familiar? If there is any chance you have consumed untreated water (say, from a stream while camping or while traveling in a developing nation) or if you have been around someone who has giardia, you should ask your doctor to check your stool for parasites. There are also blood tests to identify antigens specific to the giardia parasite.
Gastrointestinal Infections
Published in Miriam Orcutt, Clare Shortall, Sarah Walpole, Aula Abbara, Sylvia Garry, Rita Issa, Alimuddin Zumla, Ibrahim Abubakar, Handbook of Refugee Health, 2021
In chronic diarrhoea, giardiasis can be acute, with abdominal cramps, bloating, steatorrhoea and, malaise, or chronic, with malabsorption, steatorrhoea, flatulence and weight loss. Other persisting infections include C. difficile, Whipple’s disease and Cyclospora.
Novel therapeutic opportunities for Toxoplasma gondii, Trichomonas vaginalis, and Giardia intestinalis infections
Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, 2023
Francesca Arrighi, Arianna Granese, Paola Chimenti, Paolo Guglielmi
Giardia intestinalis (syn., G. lamblia, G. duodenalis) is, similar to T. vaginalis, a flagellate protozoan involved in the insurgence of intestinal infection called giardiasis [32]. Its life cycle includes trophozoite and cystic forms. After ingestion of giardia cysts, typically via contaminated food or water or via the fecal-oral route, they direct to the stomach, where host proteases and acidic pH weaken cyst walls beginning the excystation, that is complete in the upper small intestine [33]. The released vegetative trophozoites divide by binary fission and attach to the small intestinal lumen epithelium via a ventral adhesive disk. The completion of life cycle is reached when trophozoites, after detachment, move along the GI tract where they are exposed to bile, and initiate encystation to create new cysts that are excreted into the environment [34]. Giardia intestinalis infection can occur without symptoms or exhibiting acute watery diarrhea, nausea, epigastric pain, and weight loss [32].
Curcumin and curcumin-loaded nanoparticles: antipathogenic and antiparasitic activities
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2020
Mahendra Rai, Avinash P. Ingle, Raksha Pandit, Priti Paralikar, Netravati Anasane, Carolina Alves Dos Santos
Giardia lamblia is the most common protozoan parasite responsible for infection in humans. It causes diarrhea in millions of people all over the world [38], particularly, in developing countries the incidence of this disease is high [39]. This infection is more frequently observed in children as compared to adults. The major symptoms include mild diarrhea, cramps, abdominal pain, rashes, fever, pulmonary infilters, polyarthritis, etc [40]. Many drugs such as tinidazole, albendazole, and furazolidone are available for the treatment of giardiasis but all these drugs have certain limitations, and therefore, it is necessary to search for a novel antiparasitic agent which can be used in the treatment of giardiasis. With the intention of searching novel anti-protozoal drugs, Dyab et al. [41] exploited the potential of dichloromethane extract of curcumin against G. lamblia. The authors claimed that an extract of curcumin can be used as an anti-diarrheal agent for the treatment of human giardiasis.
Successes, failures, and future prospects of prodrugs and their clinical impact
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2019
Antimicrobials of the 5-nitroimidazole class are the first line choice in the treatment of protozoal and some bacterial infections. Metronidazole and tinidazoleare are prodrugs with a similar proposed mechanism of action: the parent compound diffuses into the target organism and is reduced to several intermediates which cause cytotoxicity. Tinidazole is commonly prescribed for giardiasis, bacterial vaginosis, and H. pylori. Metronidazole, though, undergoes heavy hepatic metabolism producing 5 metabolites. Hydroxy-metronidazole, is an active metabolite with 30–65% of the antimicrobial activity of metronidazole [62]. Secnidazole is a second generation 5-nitroimidazole commonly prescribed for bacterial vaginosis. It is oxidized hepatically to an active hydroxyethyl metabolite. Both parent compound and its metabolite are clinically significant [61,63]. The mechanism of action of both secnidazole and its active metabolite is similar to that of metronidazole.