A 66-year-old patient developed severe urinary stasis due to a concrement in his right ureter; foudroyant septicemia followed. Lactobacillus gasseri was grown from pyoid urine from the right renal pelvis and in two blood cultures, thus suggesting septic urinary infection caused by lactobacilli. The infection was cured by catheterisation of right ureter and antibiotic treatment with cefotaxime and amoxicillin. The concrement was removed by dissolution. Diabetes and urinary stasis appear to be the main predisposing factors for this exceptional case of septic urinary infection caused by L. gasseri.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The significance of guinea worm infection in the immunological diagnosis of onchocerciasis and bancroftian filariasis.

Infections with Dracunculus medinensis frequently occur in the same geographical area as infections with Onchocerca volvulus and Wuchereria bancrofti. This study analysed the significance of D. medinensis infections for the specificity and sensitivity of available tests for antibody-based diagnosis of onchocerciasis (using individual recombinant clones OV-10, OV-11 and OV-16, and the OV-7/OV-10/OV-16 tri-cocktail, in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and for circulating antigen-based diagnosis of bancroftian filariasis (using the TropBio and the ICT card tests). Some immunological cross-reactivity was observed with all tests. When using individual recombinant O.volvulus antigens, the highest assay indices were obtained for clone OV-10, and the lowest for clone OV-16. Testing the serum responses against the tri-cocktail of recombinant antigens did not notably improve the assay indices. Two of 40 serum samples from individuals with patent dracunculiasis gave a false positive response in the ICT test and one of these was also positive in the TropBio test. Possible implications of applying these diagnostic assays in areas endemic for dracunculiasis are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Monoclonal antibodies as investigative tools in onchocerciasis.

The development of monoclonal antibodies against parasites can facilitate analysis of host-parasite interactions and can lead to the identification and characterization of antigens that induce protective responses in the immunized host. As diagnostic reagents for human and bovine onchocerciasis, monoclonal antibodies have been used to detect circulating antigens. So far only complex antigens have been used to generate monoclonal antibodies against filarial parasites. The use of such heterogeneous immunogens may result in interference or even in inhibition of the response to the desired parasite antigen(s). Epitopes that are similar or identical to determinants on host molecules or that are components of other infectious agents serve to complicate the generation and selection of monoclonal antibodies against Onchocerca volvulus antigens, and cross-reactivity can be due to monoclonal antibodies reacting with phosphorylcholine, which is present in many preparations of helminth antigens. Because of the host-dependent immunogenicity of filarial agents, reagents should be screened carefully for species specificity by use of a set of different helminth antigens. It is hoped that active collaboration among all investigators engaged in filariasis research will facilitate resolution of such difficulties.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Detection of antibodies to Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites by employing synthetic peptides.

A new achievement in the immunodiagnosis of malaria has been reached after the knowledge of the molecular structure of some plasmodial antigens has become available. One example is given by the repetitive immunodominant epitope of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein, which consists of 4 tandemly repeated aminoacids (Asn-Ala-Asn-Pro = NANP). A large synthetic peptide reproducing 40 NANP repeats, (NANP)40, has been shown to reproduce efficiently the native antigen in the CS protein and has been used to develop an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of antisporozoite antibodies in individuals from malaria-endemic countries. This (NANP)40 ELISA has been employed in a longitudinal study in a rural community in Tanzania. The results obtained have shown (i) that the presence of anti-(NANP) antibodies is associated with a certain degree of protective immunity; and (ii) that genetic factors could play a role in the host immune responsiveness to (NANP). Such an ELISA can be easily applied to field research and can be useful for monitoring the immune status of populations participating, in the future, to malaria vaccination trials employing P. falciparum sporozoite peptides.

Adolescent↗