The present disclosure provides methods for treating or preventing malaria by administration of a protein kinase inhibitor and optionally one or both of a further protein kinase inhibitor and an antimalarial drug to a mammalian subject infected with or at risk of exposure to Plasmodium sp. In some aspects, the therapeutic and prophylactic regimens of the present disclosure are effective in reducing parasite development in mosquitoes feeding on recipients of the regimens. Additionally, the present disclosure provides methods for screening candidate antimalarial agents.

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 present invention concerns materials and methods for characterizing monoclonal immunoglobulin specificity of a Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) or Myeloma patients using a protein microarray comprising (a) a substrate, (b) antigens immobilized on the substrate, said antigens being selected from a defined group consisting of infectious agent antigens and/or self-antigens. In particular said protein microarray may be used to improve diagnosis, for the prognosis of myeloma or MGUS, for preventing transformation of MGUS toward myeloma, for adapting treatment of MGUS and myeloma or for monitoring the response to therapy of MGUS and myeloma patients.

Compositions and methods for preventing, treating and detecting leishmaniasis are disclosed. The compositions generally comprise polypeptides comprising Leishmania antigens as well as polynucleotides encoding such polypeptides.

Disclosed herein are methods of detecting Plasmodium in a subject (for example, presence of Plasmodium parasite) by detecting the presence and/or amount of one or more metabolites in a sample from the subject. In some embodiments, the methods include detecting in the sample one or more metabolites listed in Table 1, Table 2, and/or Tables 5-8. The amount of the one or more metabolites in the sample is compared to the amount of the one or more metabolites in a control and presence of Plasmodium is determined if the amount of the one or more metabolites is different (for example statistically significantly increased or decreased) compared to the control.

The present invention provides an antigenically restricted subset of the highly variant PfEMP1 rosetting antigen which possess epitopes which may be exploited to raise immune responses effective against many diverse strains and isolates of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. In this regard, the invention provides one or more P. falciparum Erythrocyte Membrane Protein-1 (PfEMP1) antigen(s) or a fragment or fragments thereof, for use in raising immune responses in humans.

Acetylcholine and its receptors appeared in evolution before development of a nervous system. Cholinergic agonists functions include proliferation, differentiation, and cell-to-cell contact in protozoa] as well as vertebrate cells. Animal models for infection by Apicomplexan parasites require cell-to-cell contact followed by differentiation of parasite and host cells to produce clinical disease. Experimental infections are produced by introducing parasite infected leukocytes into a host. Binding cholinergic receptors on the parasites and leukocytes with levamisole HCl induces non-progressive infections and absence of signs of disease.

Disclosed is a blood analyzer that includes: a sample preparation unit configured to mix a blood specimen and a fluorescent dye for staining nucleic acid to prepare a measurement sample; a light receiver configured to receive fluorescence and scattered light that are generated by light being applied to the measurement sample prepared by the sample preparation unit; and a controller programmed to determine whether or not infection with Plasmodium has occurred, on the basis of a value representing variation of a distribution of first particles in a range where single-ring form of red blood cells appear, the range where single-ring form of red blood cells appear being identified according to fluorescence intensities and scattered light intensities obtained by processing of signals from the light receiver.

The present disclosure provides antibodies that bind the surface of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts, methods for using such antibodies and kits and devices for practicing such methods. Such antibodies, methods, kits and devices find use in detection of T. gondii oocysts and the isolation of such oocysts from samples including environmental samples, food-based samples, diagnostic samples, and the like.

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.