Answer to Case 681
Answer:Echinococcussp. invaginated protoscolicesGiven the clinical history of a cystic lesion in a patient from Afghanistan, the causative agent is probablyE. granulosus. The protoscolices are somewhat degenerated, but you can still make out the internal row of hooklets:The protoscolex will evert if ingested by the canine definitive host and form the scolex of the adult tapeworm. Thanks again to Tracie Rose and her lab for donating this case!If you liked seeing parasites stained with the Papanicolaou (pap) stain, you can also check outthis previous case ofSchistosoma haematobiumeggs in urine. The pap stain ...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - May 9, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 680
This week ' s case is from Drs. Harsha Sheorey and Lauren McShane from Australia. The following were seen in bronchial washings from an immunocompromised patient (fluorescent prep for fungi and wet preps):Here are the blood culture plates from the bronchial washings.The patient also has Gram negative bacteremia. Diagnosis? As a bonus, what forms are we seeing in the respiratory specimens? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - May 2, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 680
Answer:Strongyloides stercoralishyperinfectionThis impressive case shows numerous L3 (or possibly L4)S. stercoralislarvae from bronchial washings, and the accompanying culture plates showing bacterial colonies growing in the wake of migrating larvae. Thanks again to Harsha and Lauren for donating this case! (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - May 1, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 679
Here is a beautiful tick for you all to identify from Florida Fan - something that is very timely for this season! You can use thisTICK KEY to help you get it into the correct genus. What is the potential significance of this finding? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 13, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 679
Answer toParasite Case of the Week 679:Haemaphysalissp. Congratulations to Blaine Mathison, Khaled Itani, Olugbenga Samuel Babatunde, Souti Prasad Sarkhel, Robyn Nadolny, Marc Couturier, @TickReport, and Alvaro Faccini-Martinez for the correct identification! It can be tricky to differentiateHaemaphysalisfrom fromRhipicephalus, so I created the following pictorial guide to help illustrate the key features. In the end, it all comes down to a difference of angles - inHaemaphysalis,the outward facing angle is from the palps, whereas withRhipicephalus,it ' s from the basis capituli. Both of these tick...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 12, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 678
This week ' s fascinating and unusual case was donated by Dr. Vicki Schnadig at University of Texas Medical Branch. The patient is an elderly woman from rural Louisiana who presented with a subcutaneous thigh nodule. Dr. Schnadig ' s team first performed a fine needle aspirate of the lesion which showed the following laminated spherical structure, but no definitive pathogen:Following this, the team noted a worm-like object protruding from the aspiration site and pulled it out:The following are histologic sections of this object:Diagnosis? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 5, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 678
Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 678: Sparganosis - infection with the larval form (sparganum) of Spirometrasp. Kudos to Dr. Francisco Bravo for getting the correct answer, and for the nice description from Florida Fan.This was a fascinating case as sparganosis is a relatively rare parasitic infection in humans, and the way it was discovered following fine needle aspiration is very unique. It ' s possible that the laminated calcification seen on the aspirate smear is a calcareous corpuscle, but it ' s hard to know for sure. Therefore, it was a good thing that the sparganum began to extrude from the a...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 3, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 677
This week ' s case came through my lab awhile back and was beautifully captured in the following photographs by Emily Fernholz. The specimen is a Giemsa-stained thin blood film from a patient with travel to Botswana. What parasite is seen here? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 29, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 677
Answer toParasite Case of the Week 677:Plasmodium malariae with classic band and schizont forms. There is also a hint of a basket form, and a nice collection of merozoites that recently burst out of an infected red blood cell. Note that the infected cells are smaller than the uninfected neighboring cells, which is classic for this species. Thank you for all of the great comments! (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 28, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 28th 2022
In conclusion, we summarized here evidence for a novel therapeutic approach to exploit the incredible ability of mitochondria to engage multifaceted neuroprotective stress response triggered by partial complex I inhibition. This approach promises relief for multiple human conditions, and to promote healthy aging to delay the onset of neurogenerative diseases, AD in particular, where age is the greatest risk factor. There is a mounting body of evidence generated in model organisms and humans in support of the safety of chronic application of complex I inhibitors. However, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms i...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 27, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Heterochromatin Loss and Transposon Activity in the Aging Female Germline
In today's open access paper, researchers note that the characteristic loss of maintainance of heterochromatin structure that occurs with age appears sufficient to produce signatures of aging in female germline cells, oocytes, accompanied by a rising level of transposon activity. Along with thymic involution, loss of function in female germline cells is one of the more rapid aspects of aging. This is the subject of a range of research programs, investigating the causes, and potential means of addressing the issue, ranging from tissue engineered ovaries to the usual panoply of pharmacological approaches to slow the mechanis...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 22, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 676
This week ' s case is generously donated by Dr. Adrienne Showler. The following was passed in stool by an ' adventurous eater ' , who regularly enjoys raw fish dishes, and also has tried raw beef and pork dishes in the United States. He reports passing similar objects on 4 separate occasions, and the length of each was between 1 and 3 feet. Unfortunately he didn ' t collect the samples (!), so we only have these photographs:Likely identification? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 15, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 676
Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 676: Cestode, most likelyDiphyllobothrium/Dibothriocephalus/Adenocephalusspecies. TheCDC DPDx webpage on diphyllobothriasis explains how some of the names have changed for this group of tapeworms.Unfortunately the specimen was not submitted to the laboratory and we therefore can ' t fully examine it. However, central uterine structure seen in the photo below is consistent with an adult tapeworm of the family Diphyllobothriidae:Thanks again to Dr. Showler for contributing this case! (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 14, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, March 14th 2022
This study tests the feasibility of chronically elevating skeletal muscle NAD+ in mice and investigates the putative effects on mitochondrial respiratory capacity, insulin sensitivity, and gene expression. The metabolic effects of NR and PT treatment were modest. We conclude that the chronic elevation of skeletal muscle NAD+ by the intravenous injection of NR is possible but does not affect muscle respiratory capacity or insulin sensitivity in either sedentary or physically active mice. Our data have implications for NAD+ precursor supplementation regimens.
Muscle Strengthening Activities in Later Life Correlate ...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 13, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
PAF1 Knockdown May Reduce Age-Related Transposon Activation in Flies
This study approached this question by sequencing the whole genomes of young and old wild-type and mutant flies lacking a functional RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, which naturally silences transposon RNAs. Although the wild-type flies with intact RNAi activity had little new accumulation of transposon copies, the sequencing approach was able to detect several transposon accumulation occurrences in some RNAi mutants. In addition, we found that some fly transposon families can also accumulate as extra-chromosomal circular DNA copies.
Lastly, we showed that genetically augmenting the expression of RNAi factors can co...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 10, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
