Infection Control Today Magazine

Parasites

Researchers Report Fundamental Malaria Discovery

A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease. The researchers show how parasites ...More
3 weeks ago
Posted in News
Intestinal Worm Infections May Actually Help Promote Healing

Intestinal worm infections may not be all bad, according to a new study by William C. Gause, PhD, and colleagues at UMDNJ- New Jersey Medical School. The researchers have found cytokines that help oust intestinal worm infections in mice also soothe associated lung injury ...More
4 weeks ago
Posted in News
Study Confirms New Strategy in Fight Against Infectious Diseases

New research shows that infectious disease-fighting drugs could be designed to block a pathogen’s entry into cells rather than to kill the bug itself. Historically, medications for infectious diseases have been designed to kill the offending pathogen. This new strategy is ...More
5 weeks ago
Posted in News
Do Our Medicines Boost Pathogens?

Scientists of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITG) have discovered a parasite that not only had developed resistance against a common medicine, but at the same time had become better in withstanding the human immune system. With some exaggeration: medical practice ...More
December 23, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Novel Drug Wipes Out Deadliest Malaria Parasite Through Starvation

An antimalarial agent developed by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University proved effective at clearing infections caused by the malaria parasite most lethal to humans – by literally starving the parasites to death. The novel research, ...More
December 8, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Infectious Parasite Directly Alters Brain Chemistry

A research group from the University of Leeds has shown that infection by the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in 10 percent to 20 percent of the UK's population, directly affects the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the brain. Their findings are ...More
November 4, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Study Suggests Dormant Malaria Parasites in Red Blood Cells May Contribute to Treatment Failure

Alexis LaCrue, PhD, lead author of the study, with principal investigatorDennis Kyle, PhD. Researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public College Health have shown for the first time in a rodent model that the earliest form of malaria parasites can ...More
October 25, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Researchers Discover How 'Promiscuous' Parasites Hijack Host Immune Cells

Toxoplasma gondii parasites can invade your bloodstream, break into your brain and prompt behavioral changes from recklessness to neuroticism. These highly contagious protozoa infect more than half the world's population, and most people's immune systems never purge the ...More
September 21, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Whole-Parasite Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise in Clinical Trial

For the first time, a malaria vaccine that uses the entire malaria parasite has proven safe and shown promise to produce a strong immune response in a clinical trial, according to a new study co-authored by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center ...More
September 9, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Malaria Discovery Gives Hope for New Drugs and Vaccines

An investigation into the mysterious inner workings of the malaria parasite has revealed that it survives and proliferates in the human bloodstream thanks in part to a single, crucial chemical that the parasite produces internally. According to scientists at the University ...More
August 31, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens

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