Project Details
Description
DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from Applicant's Abstract). Microsporidiosis is
becoming recognized more frequently as a cause of human disease,
especially in the immunocompromised host. Thus, several microsporidian
organisms have been implicated in disease in HIV patients:
Encephalitozoon sp. have caused keratoconjuctivitis and fatal hepatitis,
Nosema sp. have caused disseminated disease and corneal ulceration,
Pleistophora sp. have caused myositis and Enterocytozoon bienseusi (found
in enterocytes) has been implicated in diarrhea. Diagnosis of these
infections is problematic at best, requiring invasive procedures and
electron microscopy for visualization of the parasites. Recently, the
investigators claim to have been able to demonstrate these organisms by
Giemsa staining. There exists a need for noninvasive diagnostic tests for
these organisms to allow epidemiologic studies and in vitro and in vivo
models for drug screening. The applicants further claim to have
identified several common antigens among the various microsporidian
parasites and propose to utilize these to develop antigen diagnostic tests
through the production of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies. In
addition, genus specific antigens will be sought to allow further
definition of isolated organisms. The investigators also state that they
have developed a PCR reaction capable of detecting microsporidian
organisms and propose to further extend this procedure looking for common
as well as specific primers for these organisms by examining CDNA
libraries and amplified rRNA sequences.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 4/1/92 → 3/31/13 |
ASJC
- Medicine(all)
- Immunology and Microbiology(all)
- Infectious Diseases
- Molecular Biology
- Cell Biology
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