Disease relevance of Echinococcosis

• Two patients receiving oral high-dose mebendazole therapy for echinococcosis were found to have severe, reversible neutropenia, apparently due to marrow suppression; platelets and RBCs were also reversibly suppressed in one [1].
• Liver collagen cross-linking by pyridinoline, from the lysyl oxidase pathway, and by pentosidine, issued from glycation, was investigated to determine their respective contribution to collagen stabilization in patients with an irreversible liver fibrosis caused by the parasitic granulomatous disease alveolar echinococcosis [2].
• Liver samples from patients with three different types of liver diseases, alveolar echinococcosis (a dense and irreversible fibrosis), hepatocellular carcinoma and alcoholic cirrhosis, were analyzed for their content in hydroxypyridinium cross-links found in mature collagen [3].
• Albendazole treatment of pulmonary hydatid cysts in naturally infected sheep: a study with relevance to the treatment of hydatid cysts in man [4].
• Immunoblot analysis has revealed that Em18 (18 kDa component of crude antigens of Echinococcus multilocularis protoscolex) and glycoproteins of T. solium cysticerci are highly specific or unique to alveolar echinococcosis and cysticercosis, respectively [5].

High impact information on Echinococcosis

• CONCLUSIONS: Percutaneous drainage, combined with albendazole therapy, is an effective and safe alternative to surgery for the treatment of uncomplicated hydatid cysts of the liver and requires a shorter hospital stay [6].
• Histamine-release test in diagnosis of hydatidosis [7].
• Albendazole and its main metabolite, albendazole-sulphoxide, were assayed in the serum from peripheral and portal blood, the liver, bile, lungs, and hydatid cyst walls and fluid [8].
• Cetrimide-induced methaemoglobinaemia after surgical excision of hydatid cyst [9].
• Pyridinoline content was increased in fibrotic livers, with the highest values found in patients with alveolar echinococcosis (up to 1.33 pmol/pmol of collagen) [3].

Chemical compound and disease context of Echinococcosis

• In this work, extracts from bovine hydatid cysts were analyzed for the presence of factor H-like function, namely the cofactor activity for the breakdown of amidated bovine C3 by bovine factor I. Both this activity and antigenically detectable bovine factor H were found in most extracts [10].
• Long-term chemotherapy of human alveolar echinococcosis with benzimidazole compounds (mebendazole, albendazole) has been shown to be primarily parasitostatic, but its curative (parasitocidal) efficacy is debated [11].
• Here, we report the efficacy of amphotericin B in human alveolar echinococcosis [12].
• Moreover, it can be hypothesized that each hydatid cyst has an intrinsic sensitivity to benzoimidazole carbamates [13].
• This study suggests that a staggered dosing regimen of oxfendazole, and possibly other benzimidazoles, may be as efficacious as daily treatment regimens for hydatidosis while decreasing both the cost and adverse effects associated with daily dosing [14].

Biological context of Echinococcosis

• Albendazole treatment of echinococcosis in humans: effects on microsomal metabolism and drug tolerance [15].
• Serum specimens from persons with pathologically confirmed Echinococcus granulosus hydatidosis and Taenia solium cysticercosis were tested in indirect hemagglutination tests using both Echinococcus and Taenia antigens [16].
• Serologic cross-reactions with sera from patients with echinococcosis and cysticercosis [16].
• Albendazole kinetics in patients with echinococcosis: delayed absorption and impaired elimination in cholestasis [17].
• Improvement of dissolution and bioavailability for mebendazole, an agent for human echinococcosis, by preparing solid dispersion with polyethylene glycol [18].

Anatomical context of Echinococcosis

• Proteolytic activity in hydatid cyst fluid, cyst membranes and protoscoleces of E. granulosus was analyzed by electrophoresis in gelatin-containing polyacrylamide gels, including characterization with a set of protease inhibitors [19].
• The significantly increased IL-4 and the high IL-10 concentrations found in PBMC from many hydatid patients in this study are consistent with Th2 cell activation in human hydatidosis [20].
• Induction of NO synthase in leukocytes from hydatidic patients was induced by stimulating these cells with a specific parasitic antigen, Antigen-5, as assessed by the increased levels of NO3- + NO2- in the range of 60-85 microM for patients with liver hydatidosis, as compared to the 20-25 microM detected in healthy controls [21].
• An indirect haemagglutination (IHA) test was performed with chick red blood cells (RBC) on sera from 26 confirmed cases of echinococcosis and 45 control sera [22].
• Most notably, there was a definite increase in the expression of IL-10 in CD8(+) lymphocytes from patients with alveolar echinococcosis [23].

Gene context of Echinococcosis

• Collectively, the present study provides the first evidence that a TH2 immune response is gradually activated during the course of E. multilocularis infection, indicating a critical role for IL-5 in the manifestation of human alveolar echinococcosis [24].
• Increased basal production of interleukin-10 by peripheral blood mononuclear cells in human alveolar echinococcosis [25].
• The significantly reduced levels of IGF-I (p<0.001), IGF-II (p=0.017) and IGFBP-3 and the increased presence of IGFBP-2 were found in patients with echinococcosis [26].
• HLA-DRB1 allele in 35 patients with alveolar echinococcosis in Gansu Province of China [27].
• Previously, we reported the presence of IFN, TNF-alpha and IL-6 activities in the serum of patients with liver and lung hydatidosis [21].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Echinococcosis

• Three (10%) serum samples from patients with hydatidosis were positive in our ELISA and in ELISA with T. solium cysticerci antigens [28].
• Qualitative analysis of total IgG responses in hydatid patients' sera determined by immunoblotting showed that binding profiles to hydatid cyst fluid antigen differed in the four groups of treated patients [29].
• Liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection for monitoring mebendazole and hydroxymebendazole in echinococcosis patients [30].
• Equilibrium density-gradient ultracentrifugation in caesium choride and caesium sulphate has been used in the isolation and fractionation of the glycoproteins specific for blood-group P1 from hydatid cyst fluids [31].
• In vitro (1)H NMR and mass spectroscopy (matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization [MALDI]) were performed on excised cysticercal and hydatid cyst fluid [32].

References