1,721,032 research outputs found
Detection of Leishmania DNA in blood of cats from endemic foci of canine leishmaniasis by means of PCR: preliminary report
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Climate and Dirofilaria infection in Europe
No full textClimatic changes, together with an increase in the movement of cats and dogs across
Europe, have caused an increase in the geographical range of several vector borne parasites
like Dirofilaria, and in the risk of infection for animals and humans. The present paper
reviews the effects of climate and other global drivers on Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria
repens infections in Europe and the possible implications on the transmission and control
of these mosquito-borne nematodes. In the last several years, growing degree day (GDD)-
based forecast models, which use wide or local scale temperature data, have been
developed to predict the occurrence and seasonality of Dirofilaria in different parts of the
world. All these models are based on the fact that: there is a threshold of 14 8C below
which Dirofilaria development will not proceed; and there is a requirement of 130 GDD for
larvae to reach infectivity and a maximumlife expectancy of 30 days for a vectormosquito.
The output of these models predicts that the summer temperatures (with peaks in July) are
sufficient to facilitate extrinsic incubation of Dirofilaria even at high latitudes. The global
warming projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that
warm summers suitable for Dirofilaria transmission in Europe will be the rule in the future
decades and if the actual trend of temperature increase continues, filarial infection should
spread into previously infection-free areas. These factors not only favour incubation of
Dirofilaria, but also impact on mosquito species. Recent findings have also demonstrated
that Aedes albopictus is now considered to be an important, competent vector of Dirofilaria
infections. This mosquito species could spread from southern to northern European
countries in the near future, changing the epidemiological patterns of dirofilariosis both in
humans and animals
Continuous enzymatic hydrolysis of ß-casein and isoelectric collection of some of the biologically active peptides in an electric field.
No full textAmong the milk proteins, bovine beta-casein has the peculiarity of containing in its sequence some peptides liable to interfere in mineral nutrition and some peptides with opioid (casomorphines), antihypertensive, and immunomodulatory activities. In this work we propose a novel type of multicompartment enzyme reactor, operating under an electric field, for the continuous hydrolysis of milk proteins such as beta-casein. The enzyme trypsin is trapped, with zwitterionic buffering ions and its substrate beta-casein, in solution between two isoelectric membranes having pI values encompassing the isoelectric point of the enzyme. Additionally, beta-casein is captured inside the same reaction chamber with the aid of sieving membranes, since its pI is too far away from the pI of trypsin. This setup permits the continuous operation at the pH of optimum of activity. The peptides, arising from tryptic hydrolysis of beta-casein, are removed under the influence of the electric field and collected in different chambers in which they are isoelectric and isoionic as well. The purity of the peptides collected is ascertained by capillary zone electrophoresis and their identity confirmed by N-terminal sequencing and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. This setup allows continuous harvesting of some biologically-active peptides in a pure form. The major advantages of such a reactor system over conventional batch reactors are the great increase in enzyme utilization efficiency and the overall reactor productivity
Changing Climate and Changing Vector-Borne Disease Distribution: The Example of Dirofilaria in Europe
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