by Ogugua Ndubuisi Okonkwo, Adekunle Olubola Hassan, Taofik Alarape, Toyin Akanbi, Olufemi Oderinlo, Ayodele Akinye, Idris Oyekunle

Loiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by infection with the filarial parasite Loa loa. It is a disease considered by many to be benign. Several reports of trans border importation of the Loa loa worm amongst immigrants and visitors from endemic regions of the world exist. In most cases an adult subconjunctival worm is (altro…)

by Didier Bakajika, Laura Senyonjo, Peter Enyong, Joseph Oye, Benjamin Biholong, Elizabeth Elhassan, Daniel Boakye, Ruth Dixon, Elena Schmidt

Background

Massangam health district (HD), in the West Region of Cameroon, has received ivermectin mass drug administration (MDA) for 20 years, however there is evidence of continued high transmission of Onchocerca volvulus. In order to better understand the transmission dynamics in the HD and inform intervention strategies there is a need to delineate (altro…)

by Melissa S. Nolan, David Aguilar, Eric L. Brown, Sarah M. Gunter, Shannon E. Ronca, Craig L. Hanis, Kristy O. Murray

Background

Chagas disease is a chronic parasitic infection that progresses to dilated cardiomyopathy in 30% of human cases. Public health efforts target diagnosing asymptomatic cases, as therapeutic efficacy diminishes as irreversible tissue damage progresses. Physician diagnosis of Chagas disease cases in the United States is low, partially due to lack of (altro…)

by Jussi Hepojoki, Satu Hepojoki, Teemu Smura, Leonóra Szirovicza, Eva Dervas, Barbara Prähauser, Lisbeth Nufer, Elisabeth M. Schraner, Olli Vapalahti, Anja Kipar, Udo Hetzel

The family Arenaviridae comprises three genera, Mammarenavirus, Reptarenavirus and the most recently added Hartmanivirus. Arenaviruses have a bisegmented genome with ambisense coding strategy. For mammarenaviruses and reptarenaviruses the L segment encodes the Z protein (ZP) and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and the S segment encodes the glycoprotein precursor (altro…)

by Petra Schneider, Megan A. Greischar, Philip L. G. Birget, Charlotte Repton, Nicole Mideo, Sarah E. Reece

Sexually reproducing parasites, such as malaria parasites, experience a trade-off between the allocation of resources to asexual replication and the production of sexual forms. Allocation by malaria parasites to sexual forms (the conversion rate) is variable but the evolutionary drivers of this plasticity are poorly understood. We use evolutionary theory for life histories to combine (altro…)

by Stefanie Schöne, Melissa Bothe, Edda Einfeldt, Marina Borschiwer, Philipp Benner, Martin Vingron, Morgane Thomas-Chollier, Sebastiaan H. Meijsing

The binding of transcription factors to short recognition sequences plays a pivotal role in controlling the expression of genes. The sequence and shape characteristics of binding sites influence DNA binding specificity and have also been implicated in modulating the activity of transcription factors downstream of binding. To quantitatively assess the transcriptional activity of tens (altro…)

by Leonard Burg, Nicholas Palmer, Khrievono Kikhi, Evgeniya S. Miroshnik, Helen Rueckert, Eleanor Gaddy, Carlee MacPherson Cunningham, Kenny Mattonet, Shih-Lei Lai, Rubén Marín-Juez, Richard B. Waring, Didier Y. R. Stainier, Darius Balciunas

Many eukaryotic genes play essential roles in multiple biological processes in several different tissues. Conditional mutants are needed to analyze genes with such pleiotropic functions. In vertebrates, conditional gene inactivation has only been feasible in the mouse, leaving other model (altro…)

by Jun Guo, Youhua Zhang, Hua Li, Huiying Chu, Qinshu Wang, Shutan Jiang, Yan Li, Hongbin Shen, Guohui Li, Jianfeng Chen, Chenqi Xu

Protein transmembrane domains (TMDs) are generally hydrophobic, but our bioinformatics analysis shows that many TMDs contain basic residues at terminal regions. Physiological functions of these membrane-snorkeling basic residues are largely unclear. Here, we show that a membrane-snorkeling Lys residue in integrin αLβ2 (also known as lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (altro…)

by Cuc H. Tran, Maxwell Kligerman, Lesly L. Andrecy, Melissa D. Etheart, Paul Adrien, Jesse D. Blanton, Max Millien, Ryan M. Wallace

Background

Approximately 59,000 people die from rabies worldwide annually. Haiti is one of the last remaining countries in the Western Hemisphere with endemic canine rabies. Canine-mediated rabies deaths are preventable with post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP): wound treatment, immunoglobulin, and vaccination. In countries where PEP is available, variability in healthcare seeking behaviors (altro…)

by Philippe Gautret, Kristina M. Angelo, Hilmir Asgeirsson, David G. Lalloo, Marc Shaw, Eli Schwartz, Michael Libman, Kevin C. Kain, Watcharapong Piyaphanee, Holly Murphy, Karin Leder, Jean Vincelette, Mogens Jensenius, Jesse Waggoner, Daniel Leung, Sarah Borwein, Lucille Blumberg, Patricia Schlagenhauf, Elizabeth D. Barnett, Davidson H. Hamer, GeoSentinel Global Surveillance Network

Background

Recent studies demonstrate that rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (RPEP) in international travelers is suboptimal, with only 5–20% of travelers receiving rabies (altro…)

by Danielle Gomes Passos Silva, Selma da Silva Santos, Sheila C. Nardelli, Isabela Cecília Mendes, Anna Cláudia Guimarães Freire, Bruno Marçal Repolês, Bruno Carvalho Resende, Héllida Marina Costa-Silva, Verônica Santana da Silva, Karla Andrade de Oliveira, Camila Franco Batista Oliveira, Liza Figueiredo Felicori Vilela, Ronaldo Alves Pinto Nagem, Glória Regina Franco, Andrea Mara Macedo, Sergio Danilo Junho Pena, Erich Birelli Tahara, Policarpo Ademar Sales Junior, Douglas Souza Moreira, Santuza Maria Ribeiro (altro…)

by Yolande Grobler, Chi Y. Yun, David J. Kahler, Casey M. Bergman, Hangnoh Lee, Brian Oliver, Ruth Lehmann

Wolbachia is an intracellular bacterium that infects a remarkable range of insect hosts. Insects such as mosquitos act as vectors for many devastating human viruses such as Dengue, West Nile, and Zika. Remarkably, Wolbachia infection provides insect hosts with resistance to many arboviruses thereby rendering the insects ineffective as vectors. To utilize Wolbachia effectively (altro…)