The present disclosure relates to compositions comprising anti-viral therapeutics and methods of use thereof in killing parasites. Also described are methods of treating a parasitic infection; methods of screening a library for compounds effective in treating parasitic infections; and methods of diagnosing a parasitic infection.

The invention relates to methods for detecting target DNA sequences, particularly for detecting Leishmania infection, comprising a recombinase-polymerase isothermal amplification and detection by electrochemistry. The invention also relates to kits and oligonucleotides for performing said methods.

We have developed a modified indirect ELISA (MI-ELISA) using the spherical body protein-4 (SBP4) of Babesia bovis to detect antibody against diverse isolates through all infection stages in cattle. This SBP4 MI-ELISA was evaluated for sensitivity and specificity against field sera and sera from cattle infected experimentally with various doses and isolates as well as in detecting acute and persistent infection. The diagnostic specificity of the SBP4 MI-ELISA using IFA-negative sera was 100%, significantly higher than the RAP-1 cELISA (90.4%); the diagnostic sensitivity of the SBP4 MI-ELISA was 98.7% using the IFA-positive sera, in contrast to that of the RAP-1 cELISA at 60%. Results demonstrate excellent diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the novel SBP4 MI-ELISA for cattle with acute and long-term carrier infections. Use of the SBP4 MI-ELISA assay in countries that have B. bovis-endemic herds will be pivotal in preventing the spread of this disease to non-endemic herds.

The invention provides methods and compositions for detecting and diagnosing sexually transmitted infections using a string of epitopes (SOE) specific for detection of causative microorganisms. The antigenic epitopes may be single epitope sequences, a plurality of epitope sequences joined by repeats of glycine (-GG-) and/or lysine (-KK-) to form a series of epitopes (SOE), or nucleotide sequences encoding one or more SOEs and host cells harboring said SOE nucleotide sequences. SOEs specific for highly immunogenic regions of proteins from Trichomonas, Treponema and Neisseria species are provided. SOEs to detect the presence of trichomonas species comprise regions from Trichomonas-sptciric aldolase, GAPDH, a-enolase and a-actinin proteins. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising SOEs can also be used as vaccines or to elicit an immune response to specific microorganisms.

Compositions and methods for detecting Trichomonas vaginalis are provided.

The present disclosure is directed to reagents and methods of using the reagents to detect epitopes of Trypanosoma cruzi.

Methods and compositions for detecting and diagnosing sexually transmitted infections using a string of epitopes (SOE) specific for detection of causative microorganisms are provided. The antigenic epitopes may be single epitope sequences, a plurality of epitope sequences joined by amino acid linkers to form a series of epitopes (SOE), or nucleotide sequences encoding one or more SOEs and host cells harboring said SOE nucleotide sequences. SOEs specific for highly immunogenic regions of proteins from Trichomonas, Treponema and Neisseria species are provided. SOEs to detect the presence of trichomonas species comprise regions from Trichomonas aldolase, GAPDH, -enolase and 60 -actinin proteins. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising SOEs can also be used as vaccines or to elicit an immune response to specific microorganisms.

The present invention relates to an immunochromatography test method of measuring a sugar chain antigen, which provides an immunochromatographic test piece and a specimen adding device capable of specifically measuring a sugar chain antigen, and an immunochromatography method using the same; wherein after mixing a specimen with a nitrite solution, a step of allowing tartaric acid to come into contact with the mixture, and extracting a sugar chain antigen contained in the specimen is carried out in a filtration step.

Method and kits are provided determining the presence or absence of parasitic helminth eggs in environmental samples, particularly fecal samples. The methods incorporate egg capture methods and the use of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine specific ligands for egg detection.

The invention is directed to methods of using novel Babesia antigen peptides in detecting Babesia spp. in a sample. The methods may be adapted to assays suitable for high blood volume screening, use for clinical diagnosis of patients with babesiosis, or assaying blood contaminated with Babesia spp., such as B. microti.