Filtered By:
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases
Infectious Disease: Parasitic Diseases
This page shows you your search results in order of date.
Order by Relevance | Date
Total 20 results found since Jan 2013.
Investigational malaria vaccine gives strong, lasting protection
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Two U.S. Phase 1 clinical trials of a novel candidate malaria vaccine have found that the regimen conferred unprecedentedly high levels of durable protection when volunteers were later exposed to disease-causing malaria parasites. The vaccine combines live parasites with either of two widely used antimalarial drugs -- an approach termed chemoprophylaxis vaccination. A Phase 2 clinical trial of the vaccine is now underway in Mali, a malaria-endemic country.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - June 30, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Essential malaria parasite genes revealed
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Researchers have exploited a quirk in the genetic make-up of the deadly malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, to create 38,000 mutant strains and then determine which of the organism's genes are essential to its growth and survival. P. falciparum is responsible for about half of all malaria cases and 90 percent of all malaria deaths. New information about the parasite's critical gene repertoire could help investigators prioritize targets for future antimalarial drug development.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - May 3, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Newly described human antibody prevents malaria in mice
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Scientists have discovered a human antibody that protected mice from infection with the deadliest malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. The research findings provide the basis for future testing in humans to determine if the antibody can provide short-term protection against malaria, and also may aid in vaccine design. NIAID investigators led the research with colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Currently, there is no highly effective, long-lasting vaccine to prevent malaria.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - March 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Cell phone-based microscope leads to possible strategy for treating river blindness
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) River blindness, or onchocerciasis, is a disease caused by a parasitic worm (Onchocerca volvulus) found primarily in Africa. Ivermectin is used to treat onchocerciasis. This treatment can be fatal when a person has high blood levels of another worm, Loa loa. In a paper published in NEJM, scientists describe how a cell phone-based videomicroscope can provide fast, effective testing for L. loa parasites, allowing these individuals to be protected from the adverse effects of ivermectin.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - November 8, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Disease resistance successfully spread from modified to wild mosquitoes
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Using genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce or prevent the spread of disease is a rapidly expanding field of investigation. One challenge is ensuring that GM mosquitoes can mate with their wild counterparts so the desired modification is spread in the wild population. Investigators at Johns Hopkins University have engineered mosquitoes with an altered microbiota that suppresses human malaria-causing parasites. These GM mosquitos preferred to mate with wild mosquitoes and passed the desired protection to offspring.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - September 28, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Modified experimental vaccine protects monkeys from deadly malaria
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, modified an experimental malaria vaccine and showed that it completely protected four of eight monkeys that received it against challenge with the virulent Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite. In three of the remaining four monkeys, the vaccine delayed when parasites first appeared in the blood by more than 25 days.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - May 22, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Investigational malaria vaccine shows considerable protection in adults in malaria season
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) An investigational malaria vaccine given intravenously was well-tolerated and protected a significant proportion of healthy adults against infection with Plasmodium falciparum malaria -- the deadliest form of the disease -- for the duration of the malaria season, according to new findings published in the Feb. 15th issue of the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. The study participants live in Mali, Africa, where they are naturally exposed to the parasite.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - February 15, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
NIAID-supported scientists sequence, explore the genome of the river blindness parasite
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Scientists have sequenced the genome of the parasitic worm responsible for causing onchocerciasis -- an eye and skin infection more commonly known as river blindness. Through their work, researchers have gained insight into the workings of the parasite and identified proteins that potentially could be targeted with existing drugs or provide areas for developing new treatments and a preventive vaccine. The NIAID-supported research is described in a pair of papers published this week in Nature Microbiology.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - November 21, 2016 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Two genetic markers that predict malaria treatment failure found
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) A malaria treatment that combines fast-acting dihydroartemisinin with long-lasting piperaquine is quickly losing power in Cambodia due to the rapid spread of drug-resistant parasites. The presence of piperaquine-resistant malaria parasites in several Cambodian provinces was confirmed earlier this year. Now, by comparing the complete genomes of 297 parasites isolated from Cambodian malaria patients to a reference malaria parasite genome, researchers identified two genetic markers that are strongly associated with the parasites' ability to resist piperaquine.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - November 3, 2016 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
NIH explores connection between Ebola survival and co-infection with malaria parasites
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) People infected with Ebola virus were 20 percent more likely to survive if they were co-infected with malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites, according to data collected at an Ebola diagnostic laboratory in Liberia in 2014-15. Moreover, greater numbers of Plasmodium parasites correlated with increased rates of Ebola survival, according to the new study. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part the National Institutes of Health, led the project.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - August 16, 2016 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Gene sequences reveal global variations in malaria parasites
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) parasites, which cause a debilitating form of malaria, are yielding their secrets to an international team of researchers funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the largest such effort to date, the team determined complete genomes of nearly 200 P. vivax strains that recently infected people in eight countries.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - June 27, 2016 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Current malaria treatment fails in Cambodia due to drug-resistant parasites
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) New findings from NIAID confirm dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, the first-line treatment for Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection in Cambodia, has failed in certain provinces due to parasite resistance to artemisinin and piperaquine. Additional study findings suggest that artesunate, a form of artemisinin, plus mefloquine, a different long-acting partner drug, should be the first-line ACT in areas where dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine treatment has failed, the study authors note.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - January 7, 2016 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Mobile phone microscope rapidly detects parasite levels in blood
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues have developed a mobile phone microscope to measure blood levels of the parasitic filarial worm Loa loa. The point-of-care device may enable safe resumption of mass drug administration campaigns to eradicate the parasitic diseases onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis).
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - May 6, 2015 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Resistance to key malaria drug spreading at alarming rate in Southeast Asia
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Resistance to artemisinin, the main drug to treat malaria, is now widespread throughout Southeast Asia, among the Plasmodium falciparum parasites that cause the disease and is likely caused by a genetic mutation in the parasites. However, a six-day course of artemisinin-based combination therapy -- as opposed to a standard three-day course -- has proved highly effective in treating drug-resistant malaria cases, according to findings published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - July 30, 2014 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Vaccine made from complex of two malaria proteins protects mice from lethal infection
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) An experimental vaccine designed to spur production of antibodies against a key malaria parasite protein, AMA1, was developed more than decade ago by scientists from NIAID, part of NIH. It showed promise in test-tube and animal experiments and in early-stage clinical trials, but returned disappointing results in recent human trials conducted in malaria-endemic countries.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - June 23, 2014 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
