Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the most common cause of adult acquired epilepsy worldwide and one the most frequent parasitic infections associated with chronic morbidity encountered in the United States. Despite this, study of the disease remains underfunded, with NCC researchers unable to capitalize on recent research advances. Here we discuss importance of NCC as a preventable and treatable infection, as well as advancements, goals, reasons for lack of material support and a roadmap for advancement.
Area-wide integrated pest management strategies are the most efficacious way to deal with a specific region's population of the tsetse fly vector, but it was unknown whether any given river basin's population is truly isolated from those of other nearby rivers. In this paper, Dr. Marc Vreysen, et al., conducted a release-recapture experiment using 56,000 sterile tsetse to confirm that the flies can traverse between watersheds, complicating vector control efforts.
It was hypothesized that patients who develop mycetoma have a different initial immune response towards Madurella mycetomatis than those who came in contact with the fungus and did not develop disease. After stimulating PBMCs with M. mycetomatis antigens Dr. Ehab Elagab, et al., found that mycetoma patients produced mainly IL-10 and healthy endemic controls mainly INF-γ.
Studies in Mali, Nigeria and Senegal have shown contradictory results concerning the efficacy of long-term ivermectin distribution for onchocerciasis elimination. Dr. Hugo Turner, et al., explore how assumptions regarding treatment effects on microfilarial production by female worms, proportion of drug recipients, proportion of people who adhere to treatment, and whether people are treated once or twice per year affect temporal projections of infection load and prevalence in highly endemic African savannah settings.
Despite the significant public health issues and potential biodefense risks posed by the Lassa virus (LASV) little is known of the human immune response to this hemorrhagic fever. Dr. Shikha Malhotra, et al., have outlined in this paper an unbiased genomics approach to map the temporal host response in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of non-human primates exposed to LASV. Their results provide a picture of the host's circulating immune response to hemorrhagic LASV exposure and demonstrate that gene expression patterns correlate with specific stages of disease progression.
In this paper Dr. Vinícius Silva Belo, et al., provide an organization of the available information about visceral leishmaniasis in the Americas: a description of more accurate data on the role of each of the factors associated with infection; the evaluation of possible causes of heterogeneity in the results of the studies; as well as the analysis of the quality of publications and limitations in the existing knowledge. The results of this study could help point towards where target interventions should be delivered and for guiding researchers towards the development of future studies of better methodological quality.
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