#Neglected tropical diseases

[sagunpaudel]

World NTDs Day: Act Now. Act Together. Invest in Neglected Tropical Diseases

World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day: Act Now. Act Together. Invest in Neglected Tropical Diseases  By Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia To mark this year’s World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Day, WHO is calling on countries and communities in the South-East Asia Region and across the world to confront the inequalities that drive NTDs, and to make bold,…

[handwashingday]

The Benefits of clean hands.

Hand hygiene, whether through handwashing with soap or alcohol-based handrub, can help reduce the transmission of a range of diseases:

Handwashing with soap can reduce diarrheal diseases by 30%.

Handwashing with soap can reduce acute respiratory infections by up to 20%.

Handwashing with soap plays an important role in reducing the transmission of outbreak-related pathogens such as cholera, Ebola, shigellosis, SARS, hepatitis E, COVID-19, and monkeypox.

Hand hygiene is protective against healthcare-associated infections and contributes to reducing the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Hand hygiene may contribute to the reduction of Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Proper hand hygiene has also been linked to benefits beyond disease reduction, such as reduced rates of school absenteeism and improvements in wellbeing, dignity, and productivity.

[pocketglobalhealth]

On NTD's and Global Health

[tenisperfection]

I have worked with so many viruses at this point but nothing fucks me up more than rabies does. it's fucked up. FUCKED UP. what do you mean it crosses the blood brain barrier and we can't treat it with drugs because antivirals can't get past the bbb :(

[thepastisalreadywritten]

17 September 2024

[travelbasscase]

joy of joys!

malaria in the NEJM! always a good day when there's interesting images in clinical medicine.

[chagasdiseaseday]

Congenital Chagas Disease: where are the knowledge and research gaps?

In this ISNTD Connect, Dr Marina Gold (Anthropologist & CEO Mundo Sano Foundation) and Elise Rapp (Nurse, Biologist, PhD-student in Social Sciences University of Lausanne and HESAV, HES-SO, Switzerland) present a scoping review of the literature on congenital Chagas Disease and share some of the main knowledge and research trends and gaps. Following a presentation of published work, the discussion highlights the pivotal role of social sciences in tackling neglected diseases, from a better understanding of the social determinants of health to breaking down the barriers to treatments access and lifelong care.

"Congenital Chagas Disease: where are the knowledge and research gaps?" Recorded online as part of the ISNTD Connect series on Neglected Tropical Diseases.

[mindblowingscience]

Back in 2014, dermatologist Bridget McIlwee saw a 3-year-old patient in central Texas with unusual bumps on his ear. "They looked a little bit like almost kind of a benign mole that you would see in a child, except that you wouldn't expect something like that to come up quickly and then multiply," she says. McIlwee sent off a sample for laboratory testing, and the results came back pointing to a surprising culprit: The boy had tested positive for cutaneous leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease. The World Health Organization says between 600,000 and 1 million new infections happen worldwide every year, mostly in tropical regions of the Americas, the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and Central Asia — not in Texas. These illnesses can be disfiguring, even if they are rarely fatal. "I was shocked, because in medical school, we're taught that this is a tropical disease, something that you see in immigrants, military returning from deployment, people who went on vacation to South America or Asia or Africa," McIlwee says.

Continue Reading.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil eliminates lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem

The World Health Organization (WHO) congratulates Brazil for having eliminated lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem.

“Eliminating a disease is a momentous accomplishment that takes unwavering commitment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “I congratulate Brazil for its efforts to free its people of the scourge of this painful, disfiguring, disabling and stigmatizing disease. This is another example of the incredible progress we have made against neglected tropical diseases and gives hope to many other nations still fighting against lymphatic filariasis that they too can eliminate this disease.”

Lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, is a debilitating parasitic disease spread by mosquitoes. For centuries, this disease has afflicted millions worldwide, causing pain, chronic, severe swelling, serious disability, and social stigmatization.

Continue reading.

[kiskivmiske]

One of four dragon species appearing in my JCA fan fiction, along with other cryptids.

Dragons of Whispering Grasses are the largest known species, but also one of the most docile.

Small round muzzles. Plantigrade, broad webbed paws and thick short claws. Scales are usually golden and green, but can range from chocolate brown to cream and gray. Darker color is speculated to be the result of crossbreeding with other species. Large antlers resemble tree branches.

Good runners and flyers. Okay-ish, but not very fast swimmers. They mostly float or paddle at the surface, waiting for fish or duck to swim nearby, or munching on weed and algae.

Omnivores with preference for plants. Adults can digest carrion.

Prefer humid, temperate to hot climates. Build colonies in wetlands, swamps, rainforests, woodlands, on river and lake shores. Make nests by planting trees in a specific way, shaping them into basket-like formations as they grow. Depending on soil, may add underground tunnels to the structure. Live in large family groups the oldest female is normally in charge. Unlike three other species (including Shendu's dragons), don't have an official ruler.

One female brings up to four eggs at the time. Eggs are approximately 17-20 inches in diameter, reddish or brown with black and white specks, resembling granite boulders.

Baby dragons are named after plants in the area where they hatched.

Their scales have porous structure. Young dragons bathe in mud and roll on the forest floor to let soil, seeds and spores attach to their scales. As dragons grow, plants, moss and fungi cover them in natural camouflage. They take care of each other's scales, putting new plants in and taking dead leaves out.

When a dragon dies, they stop producing chemicals preventing roots from penetrating skin. Dead dragons are covered in a layer of leaves and left in designated place so plants growing on them could reclaim their bodies.

Dragons of Whispering Grasses have reputation of gardeners and forest keepers. They make sure rivers don't run dry, digging channels with their powerful paws, and keep wildlife population under control, eating sick animals. Like other fire breathing dragons, they are resistant to fire. If they spot a wildfire, they work together to circle the source and shield fire from spreading with their wings, slowly moving towards the center, extinguishing it.

They absolutely despise Shendu and his siblings and were the first to rebel after being chased away from Africa by the earth demon.

Their closest allies are tropical sea dragons, who admire their relationship with nature and plants in particular.

Arctic sea dragons have rather strained relationship with them, deeming them unclean savages, unlike their germophobic, snow loving selves, and avoided like plague. Dragons of Whispering Grasses, despite their fungus covered scales, are susceptible to very few diseases and parasites, and less infectious than other species. Plants and fungi they form symbiosis with don't spread onto others because of different scale texture.

This species is known for parental instinct so strong, they would adopt neglected human children to raise as their own, usually girls. Being fairly harmless, they made a bad name for dragons as mean princess-stealing beasts for ages. In actuality, they wouldn't really mind if you moved into their nest uninvited, as long as you don't threaten their families, they are absolutely chill or even affectionate.

On the picture: Chestnut, young warrior of Pine's village. He was in relationship with a dragon of Freezing Depths, Princess Midnight. Her brother, Prince Hadal, who supported Shendu, punished her for treason, executing Midnight and her (and Chestnut's) daughters. Absolutely distraught, Chestnut fled, using time traveling portal. Concealing his dragon appearance, he settled in a small town to raise an abandoned human girl as his cub.

Chestnut is quick-witted and observant. With a natural talent for acting he becomes a good spy, following Hadal and interfering with his plans. He normally puts on facade of a happy-go-lucky guy, but on the inside he still lives through the moment of Midnight's execution. He is protective of his human daughter, and, later, of his bio offspring from second wife. Chestnut doesn't hesitate to fight anyone who harms his family, even if it's his daughter's bio mother.

He has four younger sisters, sixteen nieces and nephews, two daughters, two twin sons and one hybrid stepson. Became father figure to Hadal's disowned son, who couldn't breathe through his gills because of a cleft palate.

[bpod-bpod]

Turning the Worm

Humans can catch the parasitic worm Trichinella spiralis from eating eg. infected pork. Here, an enzyme has been identified that's involved in the worm larvae invasion of the host gut lining – presenting a novel target for treatment of trichinosis

Read the published research paper here

Image from work by Yan Yan Song and colleagues

Department of Parasitology, Medical College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, PR China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, September 2023

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-says-russia-is-considering-changing-its-nuclear-doctrine-2024-06-20/

[tenmyoujump]

^ two second google search for people who can’t be bothered to learn about shit that affects the world outside of what they know (white usamericans)

[nuadox]

Innovative molecular biology technique allows for discovery of novel targets for candidate vaccines against schistosomiasis

- By Luciana Constantino , Agência FAPESP -

Researchers in Brazil have used an innovative technique in molecular biology to identify targets for candidate vaccines against Schistosoma mansoni, the parasite that causes schistosomiasis.

Considered one of the world’s 17 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), schistosomiasis affects some 200 million people in 74 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Six million are estimated to be infected in Brazil, mainly in the Northeast region and Minas Gerais state.

The scientists used phage display, the study of protein interactions using bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, to screen 99.6% of 119,747 DNA sequences encoding the proteins known to be expressed across all life-cycle stages of the parasite, achieving comprehensive coverage of its proteome.

The results of the study are reported in an article in NPJ Vaccines, an open-access journal published by the Springer Nature group. 

They follow on from those of a previous study that revealed the mechanism whereby the Rhesus macaque Macaca mulatta naturally develops a lasting immune response against schistosomiasis by inhibiting certain of the parasite’s genes so that it cannot multiply in the host organism. This immune response leads to self-cure after first contact with S. mansoni and enables the animal to react faster to a second infection (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/37688).

“Phage display had never been deployed for this purpose in research on parasitic diseases, which normally involves preselection of a few targets for testing of candidate vaccines. In this study, we screened 12,000 proteins of S. mansoni at the same time to identify which ones were targeted by the macaque’s antibodies, both after initial infection and reinfection and after reinfection and self-cure, a key innovation. Both the technique and the model for the study were innovative,” said Murilo Sena Amaral, a researcher at Butantan Institute’s Laboratory of Cell Cycle.

Amaral is the penultimate author of the article. The last author, as principal investigator for the study, is Sergio Verjovski-Almeida, also a researcher at Butantan Institute and a professor at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Chemistry (IQ-USP).

Both are supported by FAPESP (15/06366-2 and 20/01917-9), which has also funded scholarships for other researchers in the group (18/18117-5, 19/02305-0 and 16/10046-6), including a PhD scholarship for first author Daisy Woellner Santos.

Methodology

The researchers investigated the immune response of ten macaques infected by S. mansoni during the stages of self-cure and resistance to reinfection using a recently developed technique called peptide library-based phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq). They constructed a phage display library that comprised 119,747 DNA sequences encoding 11,641 known proteins from S. mansoni in all stages of its life cycle. The library was incubated with antibodies collected from rhesus macaques in a previous study at different points during the process of self-cure and resistance to reinfection. The aim was to isolate and identify specific targets of the animal’s immune response to the parasite.

The study involved rhesus macaques, which naturally develop a lasting immune response to the disease (photo: researcher’s archive)

Library screening with antibodies from the early phase of parasite infection identified significantly enriched epitopes of parasite extracellular proteins known to be expressed in the host’s digestive tract, shifting toward intracellular proteins during the late phase of parasite clearance (released owing to its death). Epitope refers to the specific target against which an individual antibody binds. When an antibody binds to a protein, it bonds not to the entire protein but to a segment known as an epitope.

The enriched peptides were analyzed with bioinformatics tools to identify potential candidates for vaccines. The most promising candidates were tested in a pilot vaccination assay, in which mice were immunized with a selected pool of PhIP-Seq-enriched phage-displayed peptides. The result was a significant reduction of worm burden in the immunized mice.

“You often hear the argument that a schistosomiasis vaccine isn’t feasible, but our discoveries have revealed a great deal of the immune response and opened up promising prospects for the development of an effective vaccine. We worked with the 12,000 proteins key to all stages of the parasite’s life cycle and succeeded in identifying the most reactive targets,” Verjovski-Almeida told Agência FAPESP. The technique can be used for other types of parasite, he added.

In an article published in May 2023, the group described their discovery of a way to “separate” male and female parasites so as to prevent reproduction and egg release. Male-female pairing, with the female living inside the male, is essential to their survival. Without it, they die. In the study, the researchers showed that male-female separation could be obtained by silencing specific long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are therefore a promising target for treatment of the disease (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/41908). 

Female inside male of Schistosoma mansoni (photo: researcher’s archive)

How the worm works

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease associated with poor hygiene and a lack of basic sanitation. It is transmitted when an infected person excretes feces containing schistosome eggs into the environment. The eggs hatch in freshwater, releasing larvae that infect snails. The snails are intermediate hosts, while humans are definitive hosts.

After four weeks, the larvae leave the snail as cercariae, the free-swimming larval stage. When humans come into contact with contaminated water, they acquire the disease via active skin penetration by cercariae.

In the human bloodstream, the cercariae progress to the schistosomule stage, eventually becoming adult worms that lodge in the veins of the intestines. The first symptoms of the disease appear two to six weeks after infection.

The disease is diagnosed by laboratory analysis of feces. Simple cases can be treated by a single dose of praziquantel, a drug discovered in the 1970s and distributed in Brazil by the national health system (Sistema Único de Saúde, SUS). However, it does not assure continuous protection. Patients taking it can be reinfected, and there are reports of parasite drug resistance.

“The next step is to develop a suitable vaccine formulation containing adjuvants and a novel mechanism for delivery of these antigens so that they produce better protection in the host. We have some targets with higher response levels,” Verjovski-Amaral explained. Butantan Institute has applied for a patent on the group’s discoveries linked to possible vaccine targets.

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), an arm of the Brazilian Health Ministry, has been working for years on what could be the world’s first schistosomiasis vaccine. Called Schistovac, it is in the testing stage and contains a modified version of the Sm14 protein found in S. mansoni. The protein normally plays a key role in trafficking fatty acids, which are essential to the parasite’s cellular functions. The modified version is designed to prevent proliferation.

The article “Schistosoma mansoni vaccine candidates identified by unbiased phage display screening in self-cured rhesus macaques” is at: www.nature.com/articles/s41541-023-00803-x.  

This text was originally published by FAPESP Agency according to Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC-ND. Read the original here.

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Header image: This micrograph reveals four Schistosoma mansoni trematodes, a pair (left), a female (center), and a male (right). Credit: CDC/Wikimedia Commons. Ed note: A slight blue filter has been applied.

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