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Protozoa and protozoan diseases

Subject Editor
Pegine Walrad, University of York, UK

Associate EditorsCarolina Catta-Preta, PhD, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health, USA
Kaio Cesar Chaboli Alevi, PhD, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) and Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil
Caroline Dewar, MBiochem, PhD, Lancaster University, UK
Christopher Fernández Prada, DVM MSc PhD, Université de Montréal, Canada
Rodrigo Gurgel-Gonçalves, PhD, University of Brasilia, Brazil
Joanna Hildebrand, PhD, University of Wrocław, Poland
Iván Pastor Fernandez, PhD, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Marta Maruszewska-Cheruiyot, PhD, Lazarski University, Poland
Suzanne McDermott, PhD, Seattle Children’s Research Institute Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, and University of Washington School of Medicine, USA
Louisa Messenger, PhD, MSc, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

The Protozoa and protozoan diseases section publishes studies looking at all aspects of protozoan cell biology, host-parasite interactions and pathogenicity including pathogenic mechanisms, virulence factors, host invasion, immune evasion, host defence, and immunity.

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  1. In malaria endemic countries, seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) interventions are performed during the high malaria transmission in accordance with epidemiological surveillance data. In this study we prop...

    Authors: Mady Cissoko, Issaka Sagara, Jordi Landier, Abdoulaye Guindo, Vincent Sanogo, Oumou Yacouba Coulibaly, Pascal Dembélé, Sokhna Dieng, Cedric S. Bationo, Issa Diarra, Mahamadou H. Magassa, Ibrahima Berthé, Abdoulaye Katilé, Diahara Traoré, Nadine Dessay and Jean Gaudart
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:278
  2. Rhodnius prolixus is an important vector of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causal agent of Chagas disease in humans. Despite the medical importance of this and other triatomine vectors, the study of their immune response...

    Authors: Nicolas Salcedo-Porras, Pedro Lagerblad Oliveira, Alessandra Aparecida Guarneri and Carl Lowenberger
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:269
  3. Sequencing parasite genomes in the presence of host DNA is challenging. Sequence capture can overcome this problem by using RNA probes that hybridize with the parasite DNA and then are removed from solution, t...

    Authors: Vincenzo A. Ellis, Victor Kalbskopf, Arif Ciloglu, Mélanie Duc, Xi Huang, Abdullah Inci, Staffan Bensch, Olof Hellgren and Vaidas Palinauskas
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:267
  4. Blastocystis is a common intestinal protozoa found in animal and human fecal samples, with over 1 billion individuals infected worldwide. Since domestication, dogs and cats have had a close bond with humans. How...

    Authors: Morteza Shams, Laya Shamsi, Amirhosein Yousefi, Alireza Sadrebazzaz, Ali Asghari, Behnam Mohammadi-Ghalehbin, Saeed Shahabi and Gholamreza Hatam
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:225
  5. Leishmaniasis is a neglected infectious disease caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania. The disease generally manifests as characteristic skin lesions which require lengthy treatment with antimonial drugs tha...

    Authors: Jila Sherafati, Mohammad Saaid Dayer and Fatemeh Ghaffarifar
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:212
  6. Zoonotic leishmaniosis caused by Leishmania infantum is endemic in several countries of the Mediterranean Basin, Latin America, and Asia. Dogs are the main hosts and reservoirs of human infection. Thus, from a On...

    Authors: Carla Maia, Deborah Bittencourt Mothé Fraga, José Cristóvão, Lairton Souza Borja, Manuela da Silva Solcà, Lenea Campino, Patrícia Sampaio Tavares Veras and Luzia Gonçalves
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:202
  7. Colon cancer is a common gastrointestinal tumor with a poor prognosis, and thus new therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. The antitumor effect of Plasmodium infection has been reported in some murine models...

    Authors: Xin Yao, Yujie Cao, Li Lu, Yuanxia Xu, Hao Chen, Chuanqi Liu, Dianyi Chen, Kexue Wang, Jingxiang Xu, Runqi Fang, Hui Xia, Jiangyan Li, Qiang Fang and Zhiyong Tao
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:192
  8. Cryptosporidium is one of the most prevalent parasites infecting both birds and mammals. To examine the prevalence of Cryptosporidium species and evaluate the public health significance of domestic chickens in Gu...

    Authors: Xuhui Lin, Luyao Xin, Meng Qi, Minyu Hou, Shenquan Liao, Nanshan Qi, Juan Li, Minna Lv, Haiming Cai, Junjing Hu, Jianfei Zhang, Xiangbo Ji and Mingfei Sun
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:188
  9. Parasites interact with their host through “direct” and/or “indirect” mechanisms. Plasmodium, for example, either mediates direct physical interactions with host factors or triggers the immune system of the host ...

    Authors: Guang Chen, Shuang-chun Liu, Xiao-yan Fan, Yue-lei Jin, Xin Li and Yun-ting Du
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:182
  10. There are several screening tools for detecting Leishmania infantum infection in dogs and various preventive measures to protect against it. Some studies have investigated them, but not many have described their ...

    Authors: Marta Baxarias, Josep Homedes, Cristina Mateu, Charalampos Attipa and Laia Solano-Gallego
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:134
  11. Feline leishmaniosis caused by Leishmania infantum is often associated with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection; however, the role and clinical significance of this coinfection remain unknown. This stud...

    Authors: Vito Priolo, Marisa Masucci, Giulia Donato, Laia Solano-Gallego, Pamela Martínez-Orellana, Maria Flaminia Persichetti, Ana Raya-Bermúdez, Fabrizio Vitale and Maria Grazia Pennisi
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:107
  12. Proteinuria is a common finding in dogs with leishmaniosis. Although antileishmanial therapeutic protocols are widely implemented, little information is available on which treatments are most adequate for iden...

    Authors: Marta Monteiro, Sara Prata, Luís Cardoso, Isabel Pereira da Fonseca and Rodolfo Oliveira Leal
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:125
  13. In changing northern ecosystems, understanding the mechanisms of transmission of zoonotic pathogens, including the coccidian parasite Toxoplasma gondii, is essential to protect the health of vulnerable animals an...

    Authors: Émilie Bouchard, Rajnish Sharma, Adrián Hernández-Ortiz, Kayla Buhler, Batol Al-Adhami, Chunlei Su, Heather Fenton, Géraldine G.-Gouin, James D. Roth, Chloé Warret Rodrigues, Carla Pamak, Audrey Simon, Nicholas Bachand, Patrick Leighton and Emily Jenkins
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:115

    The Correction to this article has been published in Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:146

  14. Babesia is a common protozoan parasite that infects red blood cells. In mice infected with Babesia microti, the red blood cells were lysed, resulting in decreased oxygen-carrying capacity. To compensate for low b...

    Authors: Xiaohong Yang, Ningmei Wang, Shuguang Ren, Yuhong Hu, Han Wang, Aimeng Ji, Lihui Cao, Mengxue Li, Jingze Liu and Hui Wang
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:98
  15. Trypanosoma theileri species complex includes parasites of Bovidae (cattle, sheep, goat, etc.) and Cervidae (deer) transmitted mainly by Tabanidae (horse flies and deerflies) and keds (Hippoboscidae). While morph...

    Authors: Alexei Yu. Kostygov, Alexander O. Frolov, Marina N. Malysheva, Anna I. Ganyukova, Daria Drachko, Vyacheslav Yurchenko and Vera V. Agasoi
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:95
  16. Among the 18 genera of the Triatominae subfamily, three stand out for their diversity and epidemiological importance: Triatoma, Panstrongylus, and Rhodnius. Rhodnius includes 21 species that can transmit Trypanos...

    Authors: Gustavo Lázari Cacini, Jader de Oliveira, Tiago Belintani, Éder dos Santos Souza, Nicoly Olaia, Mara Cristina Pinto and João Aristeu da Rosa
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:91
  17. Small mammals (rodents and marsupials) have been poorly explored for the occurrence of apicomplexan (genus Hepatozoon and genera of the order Piroplasmorida) and Anaplasmataceae agents in Brazil. Thus, this study...

    Authors: Bárbara C. Weck, Maria Carolina A. Serpa, Vanessa N. Ramos, Hermes R. Luz, Francisco Borges Costa, Diego G. Ramirez, Hector R. Benatti, Ubiratan Piovezan, Matias P. J. Szabó, Arlei Marcili, Felipe S. Krawczak, Sebastián Muñoz-Leal and Marcelo B. Labruna
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:87
  18. Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis and Enterocytozoon bieneusi are important zoonotic protists in humans and animals around the world, including nonhuman primates (NHPs). However, the prevalence, genetic id...

    Authors: Fanfan Shu, Shujiao Song, Yanting Wei, Falei Li, Yaqiong Guo, Yaoyu Feng, Lihua Xiao and Na Li
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:85
  19. Imaging techniques are commonly used to understand disease mechanisms and their biological features in the microenvironment of the cell. Many studies have added to our understanding of the biology of the malar...

    Authors: Moh Egy Rahman Firdaus, Fauzi Muh, Ji-Hoon Park, Seong-Kyun Lee, Sung-Hun Na, Won-Sun Park, Kwon-Soo Ha, Jin-Hee Han and Eun-Taek Han
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:68
  20. Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that can cause a geographically widespread zoonosis. Our previous splenocyte microRNA profile analyses of pig infected with T. gondii revealed tha...

    Authors: Zhaofeng Hou, Hui Zhang, Kangzhi Xu, Shifan Zhu, Lele Wang, Dingzeyang Su, Jiantao Liu, Shijie Su, Dandan Liu, Siyang Huang, Jinjun Xu, Zhiming Pan and Jianping Tao
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:58
  21. Counting parasite transmission stages in faeces is the classical measurement to quantify “parasite load”. DNA-based quantifications of parasite intensities from faecal samples are relatively novel and often va...

    Authors: Víctor Hugo Jarquín-Díaz, Alice Balard, Susana Carolina Martins Ferreira, Vivian Mittné, Julia Mari Murata and Emanuel Heitlinger
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:45
  22. Clinical presentations of malaria in Ghana are primarily caused by infections containing microscopic densities of Plasmodium falciparum, with a minor contribution from Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale. Ho...

    Authors: Linda E. Amoah, Kwame K. Asare, Donu Dickson, Sherik-fa Anang, Abena Busayo, Dorcas Bredu, George Asumah, Nana Peprah, Alexander Asamoah, Benjamin Abuaku and Keziah L. Malm
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:40
  23. The distribution of parasite load across hosts may modify the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. Chagas disease is caused by a multi-host protozoan, Trypanosoma cruzi, but the association between host ...

    Authors: Gustavo Fabián Enriquez, Jacqueline Bua, María Marcela Orozco, Natalia Paula Macchiaverna, Julián Antonio Alvarado Otegui, Hernán Darío Argibay, María del Pilar Fernández, Ricardo Esteban Gürtler and Marta Victoria Cardinal
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:37
  24. Data on the genus Sarcocystis in insectivores are limited. The Asian gray shrew Crocidura attenuata is one of the most common species of the insectivore family Soricidae in South Asia and Southeast Asia. To our k...

    Authors: Junjie Hu, Jun Sun, Yanmei Guo, Hongxia Zeng, Yunzhi Zhang and Jianping Tao
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:13
  25. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important regulators of various biological and pathological processes, in particular the inflammatory response by modulating the transcriptional control of inflammatory genes...

    Authors: Sha-Sha Wang, Chun-Xue Zhou, Hany M. Elsheikha, Jun-Jun He, Feng-Cai Zou, Wen-Bin Zheng, Xing-Quan Zhu and Guang-Hui Zhao
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:22
  26. Malaria is transmitted when infected Anopheles mosquitoes take a blood meal. During this process, the mosquitoes inject a cocktail of bioactive proteins that elicit antibody responses in humans and could be used ...

    Authors: Brenda Oseno, Faith Marura, Rodney Ogwang, Martha Muturi, James Njunge, Irene Nkumama, Robert Mwakesi, Kennedy Mwai, Martin K. Rono, Ramadhan Mwakubambanya, Faith Osier and James Tuju
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:11
  27. Drug resistance and toxic side effects are major challenges in the treatment of babesiosis. As such, new drugs are needed to combat the emergence of drug resistance in Babesia parasites and to develop alternative...

    Authors: Shengwei Ji, Mingming Liu, Eloiza May Galon, Mohamed Abdo Rizk, Bumduuren Tuvshintulga, Jixu Li, Iqra Zafar, Yae Hasegawa, Aiko Iguchi, Naoaki Yokoyama and Xuenan Xuan
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:10
  28. Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic intracellular protozoon that is estimated to infect about 30% of the world’s population, resulting in toxoplasmosis in immunocompromised patients and adverse outcomes in cases of p...

    Authors: Dan Jiang, Shuizhen Wu, Liqing Xu, Guantai Xie, Dongliang Li and Hongjuan Peng
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:3
  29. Asymptomatic Leishmania infection may play an important role in the transmission of the parasite in endemic areas. At present there is no consensus on the definition of asymptomatic Leishmania infection, nor is t...

    Authors: Ana Victoria Ibarra-Meneses, Audrey Corbeil, Victoria Wagner, Chukwuemeka Onwuchekwa and Christopher Fernandez-Prada
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:5
  30. Chicken coccidiosis is a parasitic disease caused by Eimeria of Apicomplexa, which has caused great economic loss to the poultry breeding industry. Host vimentin is a key protein in the process of infection of ma...

    Authors: Zhan Liu, Xiangfei Geng, Qiping Zhao, Shunhai Zhu, Hongyu Han, Yu Yu, Wenhao Huang, Yawen Yao, Bing Huang and Hui Dong
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:8
  31. Vector-borne diseases pose an increasing threat to global food security. Vaccines, diagnostic tests, and therapeutics are urgently needed for tick-borne diseases that affect livestock. However, the inability t...

    Authors: Rubikah Vimonish, Kelcey D. Dinkel, Lindsay M. Fry, Wendell C. Johnson, Janaina Capelli-Peixoto, Reginaldo G. Bastos, Glen A. Scoles, Donald P. Knowles, Maxime Madder, George Chaka and Massaro W. Ueti
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:616
  32. Trichomonas vaginalis causes lesions on the cervicovaginal mucosa in women; however, its pathogenesis remains unclear. We have investigated the involvement of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in the induction of ap...

    Authors: Fei Fei Gao, Juan-Hua Quan, Min A. Lee, Wei Ye, Jae-Min Yuk, Guang-Ho Cha, In-Wook Choi and Young-Ha Lee
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:603
  33. Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death among women, and prognosis is especially poor for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC); therefore, there is an urgent need for new e...

    Authors: Li-Qing Xu, Li-Jie Yao, Dan Jiang, Li-Juan Zhou, Min Chen, Wen-Zhong Liao, Wei-Hao Zou and Hong-Juan Peng
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:601
  34. Mast cells are known to affect the primary and secondary immune responses against parasites, and this effect is partially mediated through the release of pro-angiogenic mediators. The aim of this study was to ...

    Authors: Marwa A. EL-Dardiry, Amany A. Abdel-Aal, Magda S. A. Abdeltawab, Mona El-Sherbini, Marwa A. Hassan, Asmaa A. Abdel-Aal, Manal Badawi, Shady E. Anis, Bahaa-Eldin A. Khaled and Abeer S. Al-Antably
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:567
  35. Pentavalent antimonial-based chemotherapy is the first-line approach for leishmaniasis treatment and disease control. Nevertheless antimony-resistant parasites have been reported in some endemic regions. Treat...

    Authors: Luiza O. R. Pereira, Cíntia S. Sousa, Hellen C. P. Ramos, Eduardo C. Torres-Santos, Liliane S. Pinheiro, Marcelo R. Alves, Patricia Cuervo, Gustavo A. Sierra Romero, Mariana C. Boité, Renato Porrozzi and Elisa Cupolillo
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:556
  36. Radical cure of the Plasmodium vivax latent liver stage is required to effectively manage vivax malaria. Targeted mass treatment with primaquine may be an effective mechanism for reducing reservoirs of the diseas...

    Authors: Pyae Linn Aung, Myat Thu Soe, Than Naing Soe, Thit Lwin Oo, Poh Poh Aung, Aung Khin, Aung Thi, Suparat Phuanukoonnon, Kamolnetr Okanurak, Liwang Cui, Myat Phone Kyaw and Daniel M. Parker
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:549
  37. Malaria and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) co-infection can occur due to the overlapping geographical distributions of these diseases; however, only limited data of this co-infection have been reported and review...

    Authors: Polrat Wilairatana, Wetpisit Chanmol, Pongruj Rattaprasert, Frederick Ramirez Masangkay, Giovanni De Jesus Milanez, Kwuntida Uthaisar Kotepui and Manas Kotepui
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:545
  38. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) has been reported in recent years in South Khorasan Province, a desert region of eastern Iran, where the main species is Leishmania tropica. Little is known of the influence of geogra...

    Authors: Mehdi Karamian, Mohammad Amin Ghatee, Majid Shayesteh, Walter Robert Taylor, Saeed Mohebi-Nejad, Ghasem Taheri and Mohammad Reza Jamavar
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:538
  39. Immunotherapeutic drugs, such as domperidone, have been shown to be promising treatments against canine leishmaniosis (CanL), but limited data are available. The aim of this pilot study (therapeutic, prospecti...

    Authors: Maria Alfonsa Cavalera, Floriana Gernone, Annamaria Uva, Paola D’Ippolito, Xavier Roura, Saverio Paltrinieri and Andrea Zatelli
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:525
  40. Single low-dose primaquine (SLD-PQ) is recommended in combination with artemisinin-based combination therapy to reduce Plasmodium falciparum transmission in areas threatened by artemisinin resistance or aiming fo...

    Authors: Stijn W. van Beek, Elin M. Svensson, Alfred B. Tiono, Joseph Okebe, Umberto D’Alessandro, Bronner P. Gonçalves, Teun Bousema, Chris Drakeley and Rob ter Heine
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:524
  41. Although visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was largely brought under control in most regions of China during the previous century, VL cases have rebounded in western and central China in recent decades. The aim of t...

    Authors: Zhou Guan, Can Chen, Chenyang Huang, Hongwei Zhang, Yiyi Zhou, Yuqing Zhou, Jie Wu, Zhengbin Zhou, Shigui Yang and Lanjuan Li
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:517
  42. Latent toxoplasmosis, i.e. a lifelong infection with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, affects about a third of the human population worldwide. In the past 10 years, numerous studies have shown that infec...

    Authors: Jaroslav Flegr
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:508
  43. Triatomine bugs transmit Chagas disease across Latin America, where vector control-surveillance is increasingly decentralized. Locally run systems often deal with highly diverse native-vector faunas—plus, in s...

    Authors: Gilmar Ribeiro-Jr, Fernando Abad-Franch, Orlando M. F. de Sousa, Carlos G. S. dos Santos, Eduardo O. L. Fonseca, Roberto F. dos Santos, Gabriel M. Cunha, Cristiane M. M. de Carvalho, Renato B. Reis, Rodrigo Gurgel-Gonçalves and Mitermayer G. Reis
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:492
  44. This letter responds to comments on our article (Yin YL et al., Parasit Vectors, 10.1186/s13071-021-04739-w) by Yuqing Wang and colleagues, who wrote a letter entitled “Microarray analysis of circular RNAs in ...

    Authors: Yan-Ling Yin, Xin Yang and Guang-Hui Zhao
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:484
  45. Triatomines are responsible for the vector transmission of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas disease. Triatoma brasiliensis is the main vector of the parasite in Brazil, and dogs are a...

    Authors: Tamyres Bernadete Dantas Queiroga, Luanderson Cardoso Pereira Gomez, Eduardo Rodrigues de Sena, Wilo Victor dos Santos, Henrique Rafael Pontes Ferreira, Vicente Toscano de Araújo-Neto, Andressa Noronha Barbosa-Silva, Carlos Ramon do Nascimento Brito, Romeika Karla dos Reis Lima, João Ciro Fagundes-Neto, Lúcia Maria da Cunha Galvão, Henrique Rocha de Medeiros, Antônia Cláudia Jácome da Câmara, Manuela Sales Lima Nascimento, Renata Antonaci Gama and Paulo Marcos Matta Guedes
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:456
  46. The evolution of drug resistance is one of the biggest challenges in leishmaniasis and has prompted the need for new antileishmanial drugs. Repurposing of approved drugs is a faster and very attractive strateg...

    Authors: Chloé Rosa-Teijeiro, Victoria Wagner, Audrey Corbeil, Ilda d’Annessa, Philippe Leprohon, Rubens L. do Monte-Neto and Christopher Fernandez-Prada
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:438
  47. Approximately 25–30% of individuals worldwide are infected with Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), which is difficult to detect in its latent state. We aimed to evaluate the association between toxoplasmosis, the ris...

    Authors: Hung-Yi Yang, Wu-Chien Chien, Chi-Hsiang Chung, Ruei-Yu Su, Chung-Yu Lai, Chuan-Chi Yang and Nian-Sheng Tzeng
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:435
  48. In Norway, x-cell parasites associated with disease in farmed salmonids have been known as a rare phenomenon for two decades. These parasites cause systemic infections in farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss

    Authors: Egil Karlsbakk, Cecilie Flatnes Nystøyl, Heidrun Plarre and Are Nylund
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:431

    The Correction to this article has been published in Parasites & Vectors 2022 15:369