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Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical

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Inacio J

Gold on paper-paper platform for Au-nanoprobe TB detection.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most serious infectious diseases in the world and the rate of new cases continues to increase. The development of cheap and simple methodologies capable of identifying TB causing agents belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex (MTBC), at point-of-need, in particular in resource-poor countries where the main TB epidemics are observed, is of paramount relevance for the timely and effective diagnosis and management of patients.
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Kerion caused by Microsporum audouinii in a child

Kerion celsi is rarely associated with Microsporum audouinii infection. We report the case of a 3-year-old girl with a kerion celsi caused by M. audouinii and successfully treated with oral terbinafine. Fungi identification was made by macro and microscopical colony morphology analyses and molecular (genotypic) studies.
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Enhanced Detection of Tuberculous Mycobacteria in Animal Tissues Using a Semi-Nested Probe-Based Real-Time PCR

Bovine tuberculosis has been tackled for decades by costly eradication programs in most developed countries, involving the laboratory testing of tissue samples from allegedly infected animals for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) members, namely Mycobacterium bovis. Definitive diagnosis is usually achieved by bacteriological culture, which may take up to 6–12 weeks, during which the suspect animal carcass and herd are under sanitary arrest.
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Detection of Theileria and Babesia infections amongst asymptomatic cattle in Portugal

Piroplasmosis caused by tick-borne hemoprotozoans of several Theileria and Babesia species has a major impact on livestock production worldwide. A reverse line blotting assay that includes genus- and species-specific probes for Theileria and Babesia species was used to assess the occurrence of these parasites in blood samples collected from 1407 healthy bovines throughout mainland Portugal.
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Phaeohyphomycosis caused by Alternaria infectoria presenting as multiple vegetating lesions in a renal transplant patient.

The genus Alternaria is one of the most common black moulds and appears to be increasing as a causative agent of subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis, particularly among immunosuppressed patients. A 53-year-old patient who had received a kidney transplant presented with multiple verrucous lesions on the distal extremities.
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Differentiation of Cryptococcus neoformans varieties and Cryptococcus gattii using CAP59-based loop-mediated isothermal DNA amplification.

Members of the Cryptococcus species complex (C. neoformans and C. gattii) are opportunistic pathogens responsible for frequently fatal cases of meningoencephalitis. These yeasts have been classified into five serotypes. Serotypes A and D are assigned to C. neoformans var. grubii and C. neoformans var. neoformans, respectively, Serotype AD strains are hybrids and serotype B and […]
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Yeast Biogeography and the Effects of Species Recognition Approaches: The Case Study of Widespread Basidiomycetous Species from Birch Forests in Russia

Understanding diversity and distribution patterns of fungi, including yeasts, ultimately depends on accuracy of species recognition. However, different approaches to yeast species recognition often result in different entities or operational taxonomic units. We studied the effects of using different yeast species recognition approaches, namely morphological species recognition (MSR) and phylogenetic species recognition (PSR), on the distribution patterns of widespread basidiomycetous yeasts.
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Direct detection of Theileria annulata in bovine blood samples using standard and isothermal DNA amplification approaches

Tropical theileriosis is a tick-borne disease responsible for important health problems in cattle, caused by the hemoprotozoan Theileria annulata. Traditionally, detection of Theileria pathogens in infected animals requires the microscopic examination of stained-blood smears and serological methods.
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Overview and challenges of molecular technologies in the veterinary microbiology laboratory

Terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial animals, either domestic or wild, humans, and plants all face similar health threats caused by infectious agents. Multifaceted anthropic pressure caused by an increasingly growing and resource-demanding human population has affected biodiversity at all scales, from the DNA molecule to the pathogen, to the ecosystem level, leading to species declines and extinctions and, also, to host-pathogen coevolution processes.
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Nested and Multiplex Real-Time PCR Using Dual-Labeled Probes: Detecting and Discriminating Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Members in Cultures and Animal Tissues

Members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) are causative agents of tuberculosis (TB) in both humans and animals. In the last two decades, the accumulating knowledge of the nucleotide sequences of several genes, and of the whole genomes, of MTC members has allowed the development of novel molecular assays able to detect and discriminate between these species.
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