This Week in Parasitism

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review the biology and pathogenesis of the amoebae Naegleria fowlerii and Acanthamoeba castellani.

• N. fowlerii life cycle (CDC)
• N. fowlerii at Artful Amoeba
• Naegleria and amoebic meningoencephalitis (MDPH)
• First case of Naegleria PAM in Italy (Emerg Inf Dis)
• N. fowlerii in well water (Emerg Inf Dis)
• Recent N. fowlerii case in Minnesota (Clin Inf Dis)
• Beat the holiday bug (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Is your neti pot safe? (Dallas News)
• Acanthamoeba keratitis fact sheet (CDC)
• Letters read on TWiP 39

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected].

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson tackle the backlog of listener email, then consider the life cycle and pathogenesis of Trichomonas vaginalis, the flagellated protozoan transmitted by sexual contact.

• T. vaginalis life cycle (jpg)
• T. vaginalis hydrogenosome (jpg)
• Letters read on TWiP 38

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected].

Vincent and Dickson discuss the life cycle and pathogenesis of Dracunculus medinensis, the filarial nematode that causes dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease.

• Dracunculus emerging from foot (jpg)
• Dracunculus medinensis life cycle (jpg)
• Guinea worm - WHO
• Guinea worm eradication - The Carter Center
• War against Guinea worm (YouTube)
• Caduceus vs staff of Asclepius
• Vincent and Dickson - the dogs (jpg)
• Letters read on TWiP 37

Vincent and Dickson review how gut bacteria help establish T. muris in the large intestine of mice.

Vincent and Dickson discuss control of malaria with their Columbia University colleague David Fidock.

Vincent and Dickson discuss control of malaria and filariasis with the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia.

Vincent and Dickson review an in silico pipeline for identifying molecular mimicry candidate proteins in the genomes of parasites, and catch up on listener email.

Vincent and Dickson discuss immune evasion by the cruzain protease of T. cruzi, and novel tetraspanin antigens of S. japonicum.

Vincent and Dickson discuss the promising results of a phase III trial of a malaria vaccine in African children.

Vincent and Dickson have a broad-ranging conversation with Charles Knirsch of Pfizer, Inc. about how public-private partnerships can function to control and eliminate infectious diseases.