Disease relevance of Helminths

• MBP has been localized on damaged helminths and tissues in hypersensitivity diseases including bronchial asthma [1].
• Moreover, IL-13 plays a key protective role in the expulsion of helminths from the gut while also actively contributing to the pathology in schistosomiasis [2].
• Serum retinol concentrations and Schistosoma mansoni, intestinal helminths, and malarial parasitemia: a cross-sectional study in Kenyan preschool and primary school children [3].
• Levels of interferon (IFN)- gamma were higher in HTLV-1 carriers not coinfected with helminths than in HTLV-1 carriers coinfected with helminths (P<.05) [4].
• The thiazolide nitazoxanide [2-acetolyloxy-N-(5-nitro-2-thiazolyl)benzamide] (NTZ) exhibits a broad spectrum of activities against a wide variety of intestinal and tissue-dwelling helminths, protozoa, and enteric bacteria infecting animals and humans [5].

Psychiatry related information on Helminths

• Brugia filarial nematodes are pathogenic lymphatic-dwelling parasites that, like other helminths, may modify the host's defense mechanisms by a major detoxification process involving glutathione-binding proteins such as glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) [6].

High impact information on Helminths

• Eosinophil granule major basic protein (MBP), a potent toxin for helminths and mammalian cells in vitro, is a single polypeptide chain rich in arginine [1].
• CONCLUSIONS: These results imply that mast cells may contribute to the induction of protective Th2 responses and, importantly, that the intestinal inflammation associated with gastrointestinal helminths is partly mediated by mMCP-1 [7].
• Interleukin 4 (IL-4) exerts a decisive role in the coordination of protective immune responses against parasites, particularly helminths [8].
• Through microtubular destruction, mebendazole kills helminths by inhibiting glucose uptake into susceptible parasites [9].
• Thus, IL-5 contributes in several ways to human immune defenses against various pathogens, including helminths and infectious agents of the digestive and respiratory tracts [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Helminths

• Nitazoxanide, a thiazolide compound, and its desacetyl derivative, tizoxanide, have antimicrobial properties against anaerobic bacteria, as well as against helminths and protozoa [11].
• Concomitant parasitism: bancroftian filariasis and intestinal helminths and response to albendazole [12].
• The potential of fumarate reductase as a therapeutic target against the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori was investigated by studying the cytotoxicity of morantel, oxantel, and thiabendazole, known to inhibit the enzyme in parasitic worms [13].
• A single stool specimen from each of 904 villagers participating in a placebo-controlled trial of ivermectin for onchocerciasis was examined for intestinal helminths by the formol-ether technique [14].
• Mebendazole may be preferable to secnidazole in the treatment of giardiasis cases who have an history of intolerance to 5-nitromidazoles, and where infections with Giardia and soil-transmitted helminths frequently co-occur [15].

Biological context of Helminths

• Complement activation and C3 deposition on the surface of parasitic helminths may be important for recruitment of leukocytes and for damage to the target organism via cell-mediated mechanisms [16].
• Multiple lineages of the mitochondrial gene NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) in parasitic helminths: implications for molecular evolutionary studies of facultatively anaerobic eukaryotes [17].
• Not known yet, however, is the RQ and UQ composition during the entire life cycle nor the origin of RQ in parasitic helminths [18].
• Most adult parasitic helminths have an anaerobic energy metabolism in which fumarate is reduced to succinate by fumarate reductase [18].
• When compared to the indirect hemagglutination test and to counterimmunoelectrophoresis using an arc 5 antigen, minimal cross-reactions were observed in sera of patients with a presumptive diagnosis of hydatidosis but none were observed in those harbouring intestinal helminths, schistosomes or filarial parasites [19].

Anatomical context of Helminths

• Since the microtubule protein beta-tubulin has been identified as the benzimidazole target in helminths and fungi, potential correlations between benzimidazole activity and beta-tubulin sequence were examined [20].
• Central nervous system invasion by helminths is the most frequent cause of eosinophilic pleocytosis in the CSF [21].
• Activity of the feed premix formulation (M-1839) of crufomate against helminths of the gastrointestinal tract and lungs of cattle was determined in a controlled test [22].
• The findings thus support the hypothesis that phospholipase B is involved in the expulsion of parasitic worms and that elevated enzyme levels and expulsion are thymus cell dependent [23].
• A range of micro-organisms, including viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminths, is sensitive to NO produced by macrophages activated with gamma-interferon (IFN-gamma) and lipopolysaccharide [24].

Associations of Helminths with chemical compounds

• Parasitic helminths are also known to contain two different quinones, Q and rhodoquinone (RQ) [25].
• The molecular nature of benzimidazole resistance in helminths [26].
• METHODS: A total of 663 patients were screened for helminths, treated presumptively with albendazole and selectively with praziquantel, and monitored for 6 months [27].
• Comparison of partial primary sequences of sigma-class glutathione S-transferases (GSH) of parasitic helminths and a GSH-dependent prostaglandin (PG)-H D-isomerase of rat immune accessory cells suggested that some of the helminth enzymes may also be involved in PG biosynthesis [Meyer and Thomas (1995) Biochem. J. 311, 739-742] [28].
• Reaction of 3-amino derivatives of the nematocides tetramisole and levamisole with variously substituted benzoylisocyanates gave a series of benzoylureas I which were tested for activity against helminths and ectoparasites [29].

Gene context of Helminths

• Thus, filarial helminths, through products of their endobacteria such as WSP, acquire characteristics of a typical microbial pathogen inducing immune responses via TLR2 and TLR4 [30].
• Production of enzymes inactivating eotaxin may be a strategy employed by helminths to prevent recruitment and activation of eosinophils at the site of infection [31].
• Taken together with observations of IL-9 production following infection with other helminths, the results imply that IL-9 contributes to the general mast cell and IgE response characteristic of these infections and, more specifically, enhances resistance to T. muris [32].
• Moreover, there were fewer cells expressing IFN-gamma and more cells expressing IL-10 in individuals co-infected with HTLV-I and helminths [33].
• Eosinophil granule major basic protein (MBP), a potent toxin for helminths and mammalian cells, is a single polypeptide rich in arginine [34].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Helminths

• There was no significant increase in the level of IgE in the onchocerciasis sera when O. volvulus antigen was replaced by the antigens from various helminths in the present assay system (radioallergosorbent test) [35].
• Sera from patients infected with helminths other than schistosomes produced only 1.5% of false positives with TRFIA, compared with 12.3% by ELISA [36].
• However, the IL-4 and IL-13 common signaling molecule, signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT-6) appears to be mandatory for the spontaneous expulsion of enteric helminths [37].
• Reinfection with intestinal helminths after treatment with mebendazole and fluctuations in individual Ascaris lumbricoides infections with time [38].

References