This Week in Parasitism

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss an increase in the altitude of malaria distribution in warmer years in the highlands of Colombia and Ethiopia.

• Altitudinal changes in malaria incidence (Science)
• El Niño (Wikipedia)
• NOAA El Niño page
• Image credit: Science
• Letters read on TWiP 69

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello Dickson Despommier, and Sagi Shapira

Vincent, Dickson, and Sagi discuss evidence that the pathogen Trypanosoma brucei undergoes meiosis and sexual reproduction.

• Meiosis and haploid gametes in T. brucei (Curr Biol)
• Meiosis (Wikipedia)
• Letters read on TWiP 68

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson explain the genetic and molecular basis of drug resistance in Schistosoma mansonii.

• Basis of resistance to oxamniquine (Science)
• Oxamniquine (Wikipedia)
• Letters read on TWiP 67

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss reversible inhibitors of cruzipain as new drugs for treating Chagas disease.

• Reversible cysteine protease inhibitors for Chagas (AAC)
• New drug candidates for Chagas (ScienceDaily)
• Pancake ice (YouTube)
• Letters read on TWiP 66

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson consider the effects of climate change on parasitic diseases.

• Climate change and infectious diseases (Science)
• The more parasites the better? (Science)
• Host and parasite control disease risk (PNAS)
• Parasites dominate food web links (PNAS)
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
• Image credit: PLoS One
• Letters read on TWiP 65

Neglected by Shelly Xie (YouTube)

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review three novel approaches to antimalarial chemotherapy.

• Targeting PI(4)K to eliminate malaria (Nature)
• Antimicrobial peptides to target sporogonic stages of malaria (PLoS Path)
• Small molecule blocks malaria invasion of mosquito (PLoS Path)
• Photo credit
• Letters read on TWiP 64

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss evidence that the malaria parasite originated in gorillas.

• Great apes and zoonoses (Science)
• Source of human malaria (PNAS)
• Origin of human malaria parasite in gorillas (Nature)
• Ape Plasmodium in Cameroon not infecting humans (PNAS)
• No Plasmodium in greater spot-nosed monkey (Int J Parasit)
• TWiP 13: Toxoplasmosis
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiP 62

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss the high diversity of malaria parasites in West African bats, and a vaccine against hookworm.

• High diversity of West African bat malaria parasites (PNAS)
• Human hookworm vaccine (Vaccine)
• Gongylonema infection in human (Am J Trop Med Hyg)
• Letters read on TWiP 62

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review examples of paleoparasitology, the detection of parasites in archaeological material.

• T. rex had Trichomonas (PLoS One)
• King Richard III had worms (CNN)
• Discovery of toilets in Japan (Mem Inst Os Cruz)
• Paleoparasitology in the Old World (Mem Inst Os Cruz)
• Soils from Seoul (J Arachael Sci)
• Ancient parasite infections in Old World (pdf)
• Ascaris in coprolites (Mem Inst Os Cruz)
• Human intestinal parasites in the past (Mem Inst Os Cruz)
• Letters read on TWiP 61

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss how infection with Toxoplasma gondii causes mice to lose their aversion to cat urine, even after the parasites have been cleared.

• T. gondii in mice causes loss of aversion to cat urine (PLoS One)
• Cyclosporiasis update (CDC)
• Letters read on TWiP 60

Blaine - The Worm Within

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