Search

Research has been conducted on the microaerophilic protozoa Giardia intestinalis and Hexamita inflata. The ability of the pyruvate which is the central component of these protozoa's energy metabolism to act as a physiological antioxidant has been investigated and the results are reported.

Results show that purified recombinant NAD(P)H:menadione oxidoreductase exhibits typical oxidoreductase activities with NADPH serving as its electron donor. Data also indicate that the enzyme possesses high amino acid sequence similarity to its vertebrate homologues.

Parasite-specific plasma immunoglobulins have been used to indicate the presence of Giardia intestinalis infection in 60 infants living in a rural area of The Gambia. Infants were studied longitudinally between 2 and 8 mo of age. The median age for first exposure to G. intestinalis was between 3 and 4 mo, and by 8 mo all but 3 infants (95%) showed a positive titer on at least one occasion. Raised Giardia-specific IgM titers were associated with reduced weight gain in the 2 wk preceding a positive titer, but catch-up growth occurred in the following 2 wk. IgM antibody titers were also positively associated with intestinal permeability (lactulose/mannitol ratio), urinary lactose excretion, plasma concentrations of [[Alpha].sub.1]-antichymotrypsin and total IgM, IgA and IgG immunoglobulins. However, infant growth over the whole 6-mo period (i.e., between 2 and 8 mo of age) was not related to mean Giardia-specific antibody titers, nor the time of first exposure to the parasite. The data suggest that giardiasis in these very young breast-fed children occurs as a mild, acute disease, and its presence could not explain the marked, long-term growth faltering observed in many of the subjects. KEY WORDS: giardiasis; intestinal parasite; Giardia antibodies; infant growth; The Gambia

Several real-time quantitative assays are developed to study the genotyping observed in the Giardia duodenalis cysts. The assays are shown to be extremely useful for detecting the infections present in different human samples.

The effect of loop length and sequence on the folding topology of G-quadruplexes is explored by examining the structure of the four-repeat Giardia telomeric sequence d[TAGGG[(TAGGG).sub.4]]. The recurrence of many structural elements in the structures have shown a ecut and pasteE principle for designing and predicting G-quadruplex topologies, for which different elements are extracted from one G-quadruplex and inserted into another.

Several studies are conducted to explain the substrate binding and stereoselectivity phenomena observed in the Giardia lamblia fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (FBPA), a member of the II zinc-dependent aldolase family. The polarization of the substrate for protein transfer in the FBPA compound is shown to be highly dependent on the zinc mobility within it.

The cloning of the gene encoding Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) from Giardia lamblia (GlLeuRS) and properties of purified GlLeuRS isolated from Escherichia coli overproduction strain is described. The results provide insight into significance of insertion of 49 amino acid residues within the connective peptide 1 (CP1) domain for the optimal aminoacylation activity of GlLeuRS and the editing capacity of GlLeuRS-CP1.

Research has been conducted on Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts. The authors have investigated the occurrence of these cysts and oocysts in reclaimed effluents via the use of modified version of the Information Collection Rule method, and they report the results.

Research has been conducted on protozoan pathogen Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum. The authors describe the development of primers and TaqMan probes based on G. lamblia's beta-giardin gene and C. parvum's COWP gene, and the use of these samples and probes for detection of Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts in envonmental samples of water and sewage.

Giardia lamblia is a parasitic protist that has the potential to contaminate water supplies. If ingested, it causes severe diarrhea for a protracted period of time. In the event of [...]

Feces-borne contaminants in water are rarely thought of in this day and age of modern municipal water treatment systems. Although commonly found in nature, single-celled protozoa ('first animals') can still [...]