IHMT

Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical

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2014

The role of the immunological background of mice in the genetic variability of Schistosoma mansoni as detected by random amplification of polymorphic DNA

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by flatworms of the genus Schistosoma. Among the Schistosomaspecies known to infect humans, S. mansoni is the most frequent cause of intestinal schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa and South America: the World Health Organization estimates that about 200,000 deaths per year result from schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa alone. The Schistosoma life cycle requires two different hosts: a snail as intermediate host and a mammal as definitive host.
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Genetic diversity evaluation on Portuguese Leishmania infantum strains by multilocus microsatellite typing

Leishmania infantum is the main etiological agent of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean region, including Portugal, but, given its low isoenzyme diversity in this country, the population structure is poorly known. A set of 14 polymorphic microsatellite markers was studied on 136 Portuguese Leishmania strains isolated from different hosts, geographic regions and different clinical forms. A total of 108 different genotypes were found, which is a degree of genetic diversity comparable to other regions, even within zymodeme MON-1.
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Glossina palpalis palpalis populations from Equatorial Guinea belong to distinct allopatric clades

Luba is one of the four historical foci of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) on Bioko Island, in Equatorial Guinea. Although no human cases have been detected since 1995, T. b. gambiense was recently observed in the vector Glossina palpalis palpalis. The existence of cryptic species within this vector taxon has been previously suggested, although no data are available regarding the evolutionary history of tsetse flies populations in Bioko.
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Integrated Disease management: A critical synthesis of research

The present article reviews findings from empirical evaluations of integrated disease management programmes. The objective is to provide insights on integration levels, priority interventions and their effect on patient outcomes.
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Integrated management of chronic kidney disease: Analysis of an innovative policy in Portugal

This article describes the steps taken by the Ministry of Health, in terms of the planning, implementation and follow‐up of the policy, with a particular focus on the importance of involving the various groups of interest, the leadership, as well as the capacity of negotiation and influence of the Government.
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Evaluation of an Immunochromatographic Point-of-Care Test for the Simultaneous Detection of Nontreponemal and Treponemal Antibodies in Patients With Syphilis

We described the evaluation of the Syphilis Screening & Confirm Assay for the simultaneous detection of nontreponemal and treponemal antibodies. A total of 248 samples were evaluated. The sensitivity of the tests was 98.8%, 99.5% and 98.9%, while specificity was 94.7%, 88.9% and 93.2%, respectively, as compared with the rapid plasma reagin, Treponema pallidum hemagglutination assay, and fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption tests.
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Probing the aurone scaffold against Plasmodium falciparum: Design, synthesis and antimalarial activity

A library comprising 44 diversely substituted aurones derivatives was synthesized by straightforward aldol condensation reactions of benzofuranones and the appropriately substituted benzaldehydes. Microwave enhanced synthesis using palladium catalyzed protocols was introduced as a powerful strategy for extending the chemical space around the aurone scaffold.
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Development of a monoclonal antibody TAS-ELISA assay for detection of Phaeomoniella chlamydospora

A monoclonal antibody-based triple antibody sandwich (TAS) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to specifically detect Pa. chlamydospora from grapevine wood tissues. This assay could be especially useful for large-scale application in nurseries, to ensure Pa. chlamydospora-free grapevine stocks, and thus contributing to the production of healthy propagation material.
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Prominent intraspecific genetic divergence within Anopheles gambiae sibling species triggered by habitat discontinuities across a riverine landscape

The Anopheles gambiae complex of mosquitoes includes malaria vectors at different stages of speciation, whose study enables a better understanding of how adaptation to divergent environmental conditions leads to evolution of reproductive isolation. We investigated the population genetic structure of closely related sympatric taxa that have recently been proposed as separate species (An. coluzzii and An. gambiae), sampled from diverse habitats along the Gambia river in West Africa.
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Macroclimate Determines the Global Range Limit of Aedes aegypti

Aedes aegypti is the main vector of dengue and a number of other diseases worldwide. Because of the domestic nature of this mosquito, the relative importance of macroclimate in shaping its distribution has been a controversial issue. We have captured here the worldwide macroclimatic conditions occupied by A. aegypti in the last century. We assessed the ability of this information to predict the species’ observed distribution using supra-continental spatially-uncorrelated data.
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