http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. How do one-celled parasites move from the salivary gland of a mosquito through a person's skin into red blood cells? What molecular mechanisms form the basis for this very important movement of the protozoa? A team of researchers headed by Dr. Friedrich Frischknecht, head of a research group at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Heidelberg University Hospital, observed the initial stage of the malaria parasite that is transmitted by mosquitoes with new microscope techniques. http://www.physorg.com/news180784195.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:50:25 EST news180784195 Infectious diseases can be transmitted by sneezing, touching, or - for Tasmanian devils - biting each other on the face, a habit that may have driven the dinosaurs to extinction through the transmission of a protozoan parasite. http://www.physorg.com/news180011297.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:20:03 EST news180011297 Researchers have discovered how the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas' disease, prolongs its survival in infected cells. A protein on the parasite activates the enzyme Akt, which blocks cell death signals, preventing cell destruction and parasite elimination. Chagas' disease affects some 8 to 11 million people throughout Latin America and even the United States. http://www.physorg.com/news179502191.html Chemistry Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:45:49 EST news179502191 When people have malaria, they are infected with Plasmodium parasites, which enter the body from the saliva of a mosquito, infect cells in the liver, and then spread to red blood cells. Inside the blood cells, the parasites replicate and also begin to expose adhesive proteins on the cell surface that change the physical nature of the cells in the bloodstream. http://www.physorg.com/news178174676.html Biology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:10:05 EST news178174676 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new species of parasitoid wasp that feeds on a common whitefly pest has been discovered in the UK by a Natural History Museum scientist. http://www.physorg.com/news175274627.html Biology Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:40:11 EST news175274627 Scientists have found that the human liver fluke (Opisthorchis viverrini) contributes to the development of bile duct (liver) cancer by secreting granulin, a growth hormone that is known to cause uncontrolled growth of cells. Details are published October 9 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. http://www.physorg.com/news174286102.html Medicine & Health Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:20:02 EST news174286102 (PhysOrg.com) -- A study conducted in Vietnam has added further weight to the view that parasitic gut worms, such as hookworm, could help in the prevention and treatment of asthma and other allergies. http://www.physorg.com/news173363300.html Medicine & Health Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:29:00 EST news173363300 The number and diversity of male partners a queen honeybee has could help to protect her children from disease, say University of Leeds scientists, who are investigating possible causes of the widespread increase in bee deaths seen around the world. http://www.physorg.com/news172139164.html Biology Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:40:03 EST news172139164 In a perfect world, for every boy there would of course be a girl, but a new study shows that actual sex ratios can sometimes sway very far from that ideal. In fact, the male-to-female ratio of one tropical butterfly has shifted rapidly over time and space, driven by a parasite that specifically kills males of the species, reveals a report published online on September 10th in Current Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news171805083.html Biology Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:38:36 EST news171805083 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from Uppsala University and the Karolinska Institute have found major genetic differences between the human variants of the intestinal parasite Giardia intestinalis. Sequencing of the genomes using the latest technologies shows that people are infected by two different Giardia species, according to a study published in the journal PLoS Pathogens today. http://www.physorg.com/news170079288.html Biology Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:30:02 EST news170079288 Malaria kills anywhere from one to three million people around the world annually and affects the lives of up to 500 million more. Yet until now, scientists did not fully understand exactly how the process that caused the disease's severe hallmark fevers began. http://www.physorg.com/news170052624.html Medicine & Health Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:20:01 EST news170052624 The parasites that cause leishmaniasis use a quirky trick to convince the immune system to effectively invite them into cells for dinner, according to a new study published today in PLoS Pathogens. The researchers, from Imperial College London, say their findings improve understanding of the way Leishmania parasites establish an infection and could aid the search for a vaccine against this neglected tropical disease. http://www.physorg.com/news170052545.html Biology Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:49:32 EST news170052545 Immunology researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that bacteria present in the human gut help initiate the body's defense mechanisms against Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite responsible for toxoplasmosis. http://www.physorg.com/news169909790.html Biology Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:00:10 EST news169909790 Daytime temperature fluctuations greatly alter the incubation period of malaria parasites in mosquitoes and alter transmission rates of the disease. Consideration of these fluctuations reveals a more accurate picture of climate change's impact on malaria. http://www.physorg.com/news168538875.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:10:02 EST news168538875 Researchers have identified what they believe is the original source of malignant malaria: a parasite found in chimpanzees in equatorial Africa. http://www.physorg.com/news168538678.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:18:33 EST news168538678 Schistosoma haematobium (S. haematobium) is a parasitic flatworm that infects millions of people, mostly in the developing world, and is associated with high incidence of bladder cancer although why is not clear. Now, however, two works by Portuguese researchers just out in The Journal of Experimental Pathology 1 and  the International Journal of Parasitology 2 reveal that cells infected in laboratory with S. haematobium, acquire cancer-like characteristics and, when injected into mice develop into tumours. http://www.physorg.com/news168156930.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:16:04 EST news168156930 Schistosomiasis, one of the most important of the neglected tropical diseases, is caused by infection with parasitic helminths of the genus Schistosoma. These parasites are long lived (>10 years) and dwell within blood vessels, where they produce eggs that become the focus of intense, chronic inflammatory responses. In severe cases, this inflammation is associated with life-threatening liver disease. http://www.physorg.com/news167923493.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:50:02 EST news167923493 Genetically modified crops are being grown in Britain for the first time in 12 months after controversial trials were resumed without alerting the public, a newspaper reported Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news167905842.html Biology Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:00:01 EST news167905842 The coevolutionary struggle between a New Zealand snail and its worm parasite makes sex advantageous for the snail, whose females favor asexual reproduction in the absence of parasites, say Indiana University Bloomington and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology biologists in this week's Current Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news167571608.html Biology Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:40:51 EST news167571608 What's so great about sex? From an evolutionary perspective, the answer is not as obvious as one might think. An article published in the July issue of the American Naturalist suggests that sex may have evolved in part as a defense against parasites. http://www.physorg.com/news166118400.html Biology Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:00:32 EST news166118400 (PhysOrg.com) -- Evolutionarily speaking, baboons may be our more distant cousins among primates. But when it comes to our experiences with malaria over the course of time, it seems the stories of our two species have followed very similar plots. http://www.physorg.com/news165068326.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:20:34 EST news165068326 Reed warblers live with the threat that a cuckoo bird will infiltrate their nest, remove one of their eggs, and replace it with the cuckoo's own. This 'parasitism' enables the cuckoo to have its young raised by unsuspecting reed warblers. http://www.physorg.com/news163343509.html Biology Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:12:12 EST news163343509 (PhysOrg.com) -- Hands wring and teeth gnash over the loss of endangered species like the panda or the polar bear. But what happens to the parasites hosted by endangered species? And although most people would side with the panda over the parasite, which group should we worry about more? http://www.physorg.com/news163089276.html Biology Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:35:04 EST news163089276 That's one conclusion from a new study that looked at how virulence evolves in parasites. The research examined whether parasites evolve to be more or less aggressive depending on whether they are closely connected to their hosts or scattered among more isolated clusters of hosts. http://www.physorg.com/news162651265.html Biology Wed, 27 May 2009 13:55:58 EST news162651265 Thank parasites for making some of our immune proteins into the inflammatory defenders they are today, according to a population genetics study that will appear in the June 8 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine (online May 25). The study, conducted by a team of researchers in Italy, also suggests that you might blame parasites for sculpting some of those genes into risk factors for intestinal disorders. http://www.physorg.com/news162464032.html Medicine & Health Mon, 25 May 2009 10:03:33 EST news162464032 New combinations of agents based on the oldest synthetic malaria drug, the methylene blue stain, can curb the spread of malaria parasites and make a significant contribution to the long-term eradication called for by the international "Roll Back Malaria Initiative." In a study on 160 children with malaria in Burkina Faso, specialists in tropical medicine from the Heidelberg University Hospital have shown that in combination with newer malaria drugs, methylene blue prevents the malaria pathogen in infected persons from being re-ingested by mosquitoes and then transmitted to others and is thus twice as effective as the standard therapy. The results of the study were published in May 2009 in the online journal PLoS One. http://www.physorg.com/news162034412.html Medicine & Health Wed, 20 May 2009 10:33:57 EST news162034412 Cells of higher organisms are in a constant struggle against some of their own DNA - repeated bits of DNA sequence called transposons that have infiltrated host genomes over the eons. Transposons damage the rest of the genome when they copy themselves and jump into new genomic sites. http://www.physorg.com/news160756336.html Biology Tue, 05 May 2009 15:32:39 EST news160756336 The parasite Trypanosoma brucei, which causes African sleeping sickness, is like a thief donning a disguise. Every time the host's immune cells get close to destroying the parasite, it escapes detection by rearranging its DNA and changing its appearance. Now, in research to appear in the advance online April 15 issue of Nature, two laboratories at Rockefeller University have joined forces to reveal how the parasite initiates its getaway, by cleaving both strands of its DNA. http://www.physorg.com/news159022189.html Biology Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:50:17 EST news159022189 In a genetic leap that could help fast track vaccine and drug development to prevent or tame serious global diseases, DMS researchers have discovered how to destroy a key DNA pathway in a wily and widespread human parasite. The feat surmounts a major hurdle for targeting genes in Toxoplasma gondii, an infection model whose close relatives are responsible for diseases that include malaria and severe diarrhea. http://www.physorg.com/news158862480.html Medicine & Health Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:30:22 EST news158862480 For years, microbiologist Stephen Beverley, Ph.D., has tried to get the disease-causing parasite Leishmania in the mood for love. In this week's Science, he and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health report that they may have finally found the answer: Cram enough Leishmania into the gut of an insect known as the sand fly, and the parasite will have sex. http://www.physorg.com/news158505728.html Biology Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:22:55 EST news158505728