Disease relevance of Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

• Rickettsia prowazekii, the agent causing Brill-Zinsser disease, cannot be treated with azithromycin [1].
• To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of epidemic typhus confirmed by means of polymerase chain reaction--based testing of cerebrospinal fluid, and it introduces a novel assay for the molecular diagnosis of both epidemic and murine typhus [2].
• Diagnosis of typhus infection with Rickettsia tsutsugamushi by polymerase chain reaction [3].
• Human anti-scrub typhus rickettsia and rabbit anti-Proteus antibodies recognize similar epitope in the O-polysaccharide part of Proteus mirabilis OXK lipopolysaccharide [4].
• Serum TCII level is, therefore, increased and persistently high in a patient with malaria and typhus fever infections with hemoglobinuria [5].

High impact information on Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

• Ciprofloxacin treatment of typhus [6].
• How Charles Nicolle of the Pasteur Institute discovered that epidemic typhus is transmitted by lice: reminiscences from my years at the Pasteur Institute in Paris [7].
• We conclude that lysis of cells infected with typhus group rickettsiae is mediated by a lymphokine-activated killer [8].
• The presence of the nucleic acid of the spotted fever group (SPG) and typhus group (TG) rickettsiae was investigated in 200 serum specimens seropositive for SFG rickettsiae by multiplex-nested polymerase chain reaction with primers derived from the rickettsial outer membrane protein B gene [9].
• Failure of azithromycin in treatment of Brill-Zinsser disease [1].

Chemical compound and disease context of Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

• Endothelial prostaglandin secretion: effects of typhus rickettsiae [10].
• Purification of typhus rickettsiae on Renografin gradients has no apparent adverse effects on their metabolic or antigenic properties [11].
• Therefore, typhus rickettsiae can increase endothelial secretion of arachidonate-derived autocoids [10].
• Analysis of both typhus and spotted fever group organisms radiolabeled with galactose suggested that carbohydrate was associated with proteins 1, 3, and 4 [12].
• Monolayers of mouse resident peritoneal macrophages were incubated with typhus rickettsiae, and macrophage secretion of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) was assessed [13].

Biological context of Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

• Cross-reaction with at least one of the typhus antigens was observed in the sera from 64% of the SF patients [14].
• The culminating points of their maltreatment in Buchenwald were the use of homosexuals in experiments to develop immunization against typhus fever and the attempt by an SS doctor to "cure" homosexuality through the implantation of sexual hormones [15].

Anatomical context of Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

• Effects of typhus rickettsiae on peritoneal and alveolar macrophages: rickettsiae stimulate leukotriene and prostaglandin secretion [13].
• We examined the ability of monoclonal antibodies directed against lymphocyte surface antigens to block the lysis of typhus group rickettsia-infected cells by lymphokine-activated killer effectors [16].
• Aortic and mitral valve replacement surgery and a 6-week course of doxycycline therapy produced a clinical cure in this patient, as well as a diagnostic fall in markedly elevated preoperative typhus indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) and complement fixation (CF) titers [17].
• Morphological changes in the viscera of albino mice were studied over the course of North Asia typhus fever [18].

Gene context of Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

• Restriction polymorphism patterns of three examined amplicons from the CS gene, 17-kDa-protein gene, and ompB gene were identical among the eight phenotype-positive LB strains and were unique among all known rickettsiae of the spotted fever and typhus groups [19].
• We sequenced the 4, 122- to 4,125-bp RNA polymerase beta-subunit-encoding gene (rpoB) from typhus and spotted fever group representatives and obtained partial sequences for all naturally rifampin-resistant species [20].
• However, several strains of the typhus group rickettsiae possess metK genes lacking obvious mutations [21].
• About 50% of typhus group sera reacted with a single line in CIE and had antibody titers of 1:20-1:80 by EIA [22].
• Molecular analysis of the 17-kDa antigen gene and the citrate synthase gene has discriminated this bacterium from other typhus group and spotted fever group rickettsiae [23].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne

• In the absence of sophisticated laboratory support, it had become common practice to treat patients with obscure fevers with tetracycline as a 'diagnostic' test for typhus [24].
• The protein antigens of two distinct lines of genetically related strains, namely the nonpathogenic strain E and its virulent revertant EVir and of the standard virulent strain Breinl were compared in SDS-PAGE and immunoblot assay using typhus patient sera and immune rabbit sera [25].

References