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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. The sustainable elimination of Triatoma infestans in the Gran Chaco region represents an enduring challenge. Following the limited effects of a routine pyrethroid insecticide spraying campaign conducted over 2011...

    Authors: María Sol Gaspe, Marta Victoria Cardinal, María del Pilar Fernández, Claudia Viviana Vassena, Pablo Luis Santo-Orihuela, Gustavo Fabián Enriquez, Alejandra Alvedro, Mariano Alberto Laiño, Julieta Nattero, Julián Antonio Alvarado-Otegui, Natalia Paula Macchiaverna, María Carla Cecere, Héctor Freilij and Ricardo Esteban Gürtler
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:437
  2. Artisanal mining creates enabling breeding ground for the vector of malaria parasites. There is paucity of data on the effects of artisanal mining on malaria. This study assessed burden of malaria and caregive...

    Authors: Francois Dao, Sampson Kafui Djonor, Christian Teye-Muno Ayin, George Asumah Adu, Bismark Sarfo, Pricillia Nortey, Kwadwo Owusu Akuffo and Anthony Danso-Appiah
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:418
  3. Members of the genus Sarcocystis are protozoan parasites characterized by a prey–predator two-host life-cycle. Sarcocysts are formed in the muscles or central nervous system of the intermediate host (IH), while s...

    Authors: Petras Prakas, Antonio Bea, Evelina Juozaitytė-Ngugu, Iñaki Olano, Diego Villanúa, Saulius Švažas and Dalius Butkauskas
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:414
  4. Riverine species of tsetse (Glossina) transmit Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, which causes Gambian human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT), a neglected tropical disease. Uganda aims to eliminate gHAT as a public heal...

    Authors: Paul R. Bessell, Johan Esterhuizen, Michael J. Lehane, Joshua Longbottom, Albert Mugenyi, Richard Selby, Inaki Tirados, Steve J. Torr, Charles Waiswa, Charles Wamboga and Andrew Hope
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:410
  5. Blastocystis is a human gut symbiont of yet undefined clinical significance. In a set of faecal samples collected from asymptomatic children of six distant populations, we first assessed the community profiles of...

    Authors: Ondrej Cinek, Katerina Polackova, Rasha Odeh, Abeer Alassaf, Lenka Kramná, MaryAnn Ugochi Ibekwe, Edna Siima Majaliwa, Gunduz Ahmadov, Bashir Mukhtar Elwasila Elmahi, Hanan Mekki, Sami Oikarinen, Jan Lebl and Mohammed Ahmed Abdullah
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:399
  6. Relatively little is known about how pathogens transmitted by vector insects are affected by changing temperatures analogous to those occurring in the present global warming scenario. One expectation is that, ...

    Authors: Berenice González-Rete, Ana E. Gutiérrez-Cabrera, José Antonio de Fuentes-Vicente, Paz María Salazar-Schettino, Margarita Cabrera-Bravo and Alex Córdoba-Aguilar
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:385
  7. Plasmodium sp., which causes malaria, must first develop in mosquitoes before being transmitted. Upon ingesting infected blood, gametes form in the mosquito lumen, followed by fertilization and differentiation of...

    Authors: Kazuhiko Nakayama, Yuta Kimura, Yu Kitahara, Akira Soga, Asako Haraguchi, Jun Hakozaki, Makoto Sugiyama, Kodai Kusakisako, Shinya Fukumoto and Hiromi Ikadai
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:373
  8. Giardia duodenalis is an extracellular protozoan parasite that causes giardiasis in mammals. The presentation of giardiasis ranges from asymptomatic to severe diarrhea, and the World Health Organization lists it ...

    Authors: Panpan Zhao, Lili Cao, Xiaocen Wang, Jianhua Li, Jingquan Dong, Nan Zhang, Xin Li, Shan Li, Min Sun, Xichen Zhang, Min Liang, Xudong Pu and Pengtao Gong
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:358
  9. Triatomine control campaigns have traditionally consisted of spraying the inside of houses with pyrethroid insecticides. However, exposure to sublethal insecticide doses after the initial application is a comm...

    Authors: Julieta Nattero, Gastón Mougabure-Cueto, Vincent Debat and Ricardo E. Gürtler
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:355
  10. The tribe Rhodniini is a monophyletic group composed of 24 species grouped into two genera: Rhodnius and Psammolestes. The genus Psammolestes includes only three species, namely P. coreodes, P. tertius and P. art...

    Authors: Amanda Ravazi, Jader de Oliveira, Fabricio Ferreria Campos, Fernanda Fernandez Madeira, Yago Visinho dos Reis, Ana Beatriz Bortolozo de Oliveira, Maria Tercília Vilela de Azeredo-Oliveira, João Aristeu da Rosa, Cleber Galvão and Kaio Cesar Chaboli Alevi
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:350
  11. Meccus' taxonomy has been quite complex since the first species of this genus was described by Burmeister in 1835 as Conorhinus phyllosoma. In 1859 the species was transferred to the genus Meccus and in 1930 to T...

    Authors: Natália Regina Cesaretto, Jader de Oliveira, Amanda Ravazi, Fernanda Fernandez Madeira, Yago Visinho dos Reis, Ana Beatriz Bortolozo de Oliveira, Roberto Dezan Vicente, Daniel Cesaretto Cristal, Cleber Galvão, Maria Tercília Vilela de Azeredo-Oliveira, João Aristeu da Rosa and Kaio Cesar Chaboli Alevi
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:340
  12. Chagas disease is a neglected zoonosis caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. It affects over six million people, mostly in Latin America. Drugs available to treat T. cruzi infection have associated toxicity a...

    Authors: Nieves Martínez-Peinado, Nuria Cortes-Serra, Luciana R. Tallini, Maria-Jesus Pinazo, Joaquim Gascon, Jaume Bastida and Julio Alonso-Padilla
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:337
  13. Cryptosporidium baileyi is an economically important zoonotic pathogen that causes serious respiratory symptoms in chickens for which no effective control measures are currently available. An accumulating body of...

    Authors: Xue-Mei Wu, Xin Yang, Xian-Cheng Fan, Xi Chen, Yu-Xin Wang, Long-Xian Zhang, Jun-Ke Song and Guang-Hui Zhao
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:336
  14. Indoor residual spraying (IRS) of insecticides is a key method to reduce vector transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi, causing Chagas disease in a large part of South America. However, the successes of IRS in the Gra...

    Authors: Raquel Gonçalves, Rhiannon A. E. Logan, Hanafy M. Ismail, Mark J. I. Paine, Caryn Bern and Orin Courtenay
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:327
  15. Zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis is caused by the protozoan Leishmania infantum and is highly lethal in humans and dogs if left untreated. The frequency of this parasite and associated histological changes in the ...

    Authors: William de Oliveira Kost, Sandro Antonio Pereira, Fabiano Borges Figueiredo, Artur Augusto Velho Mendes Junior, Maria de Fátima Madeira, Luciana de Freitas Campos Miranda, Raquel de Vasconcellos Carvalhaes de Oliveira, Luiz Cláudio Ferreira, Fernanda Nazaré Morgado and Rodrigo Caldas Menezes
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:321
  16. Trypanosomatid genomes are colonized by active and inactive mobile DNA elements, such as LINE, SINE-like, SIDER and DIRE retrotransposons. These elements all share a 77-nucleotide-long sequence at their 5′ end...

    Authors: Francisco Macías, Raquel Afonso-Lehmann, Patricia E. Carreira and M. Carmen Thomas
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:313
  17. An epitope, Galα1-3Galβ1-4GlcNAc-R, termed α-gal, is present in glycoconjugates of New World monkeys (platyrrhines) and other mammals but not in hominoids and Old World monkeys (catarrhines). The difference is...

    Authors: Ranjan Ramasamy
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:303
  18. Toxoplasma gondii infections are common in humans and animals worldwide. Among all intermediate hosts of T. gondii, captive marsupials from Australia and New Zealand are highly susceptible to clinical toxoplasmos...

    Authors: Jitender P. Dubey, Fernando H. A. Murata, Camila K. Cerqueira-Cézar, Oliver C. H. Kwok, Chunlei Su and Michael E. Grigg
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:301
  19. Recent studies indicate that the prevalence of non-falciparum malaria, including Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale spp., is increasing, with some complications in infected individuals. The aim of this revi...

    Authors: Joseph Hawadak, Rodrigue Roman Dongang Nana and Vineeta Singh
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:297
  20. The 2018 Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network’s Vector Control Working Group (APMEN VCWG) annual meeting took place 3–5 September 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand. It was designed to be a forum for entomology and...

    Authors: Latifeh Dahmash, Allison Tatarsky, Fe Esperanza Espino, Theeraphap Chareonviriyaphap, Michael B. Macdonald, Jettsumon Sattabongkot Prachumsri, Pradeep Srivastava, Christina Rundi and Jeffrey Hii
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:290
  21. The proliferative stage (tachyzoite) of Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is critical for its transmission and pathogenesis, and a proto-oncogene eukaryotic translation initiation factor (eIF-5A) plays an important r...

    Authors: Xinchao Liu, Chunjing Li, Xiaoyu Li, Muhammad Ehsan, Mingmin Lu, Ke Li, Lixin Xu, Ruofeng Yan, Xiaokai Song and XiangRui Li
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:283
  22. Malaria mixed infections are often unrecognized by microscopists in the hospitals, and a delay or failure to treat Plasmodium-mixed infection may lead to aggravated morbidity and increased mortality. The present ...

    Authors: Aongart Mahittikorn, Frederick Ramirez Masangkay, Kwuntida Uthaisar Kotepui, Giovanni De Jesus Milanez and Manas Kotepui
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:280
  23. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has been widely used to diagnose various infectious diseases. Malaria is a globally distributed infectious disease attributed to parasites in the genus Plasmodium. It...

    Authors: Xi Chen, Jiaqi Zhang, Maohua Pan, Yucheng Qin, Hui Zhao, Pien Qin, Qi Yang, Xinxin Li, Weilin Zeng, Zheng Xiang, Mengxi Duan, Xiaosong Li, Xun Wang, Dominique Mazier, Yanmei Zhang, Wei Zhao…
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:278
  24. Blastocystis is a common anaerobic colonic protist in humans with controversial pathogenicity. Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is the commonest cause of infectious diarrhea in healthcare settings. The preval...

    Authors: Lei Deng, Huiyi Tay, Guangneng Peng, Jonathan W. J. Lee and Kevin S. W. Tan
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:277
  25. Transmission-blocking vaccine (TBV) is a promising strategy for malaria elimination. It is hypothesized that mixing or fusing two antigens targeting different stages of sexual development may provide higher tr...

    Authors: Fan Yang, Fei Liu, Xinxin Yu, Wenqi Zheng, Yudi Wu, Yue Qiu, Ying Jin, Liwang Cui and Yaming Cao
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:241
  26. The western area of the province of Almeria, sited in southern Spain, has one of the highest immigrant population rates in Spain, mainly dedicated to agricultural work. In recent years, there has been a signif...

    Authors: Joaquín Pousibet-Puerto, Ana Belén Lozano-Serrano, Manuel Jesús Soriano-Pérez, José Vázquez-Villegas, María José Giménez-López, María Isabel Cabeza-Barrera, José Ángel Cuenca-Gómez, Matilde Palanca-Giménez, María Pilar Luzón-García, Nerea Castillo-Fernández, María Teresa Cabezas-Fernández and Joaquín Salas-Coronas
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:240
  27. Cryptosporidium is an important zoonotic pathogen responsible for severe enteric diseases in humans and animals. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying host and Cryptosporidium interactions are still not cl...

    Authors: Yan-Ling Yin, Ting-Li Liu, Qian Yao, Yu-Xin Wang, Xue-Mei Wu, Xue-Ting Wang, Xin Yang, Jun-Ke Song and Guang-Hui Zhao
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:238
  28. There is a high prevalence of malaria and viral hepatitis in South Africa. Co-infection with Plasmodium malaria (leading to cerebral malaria) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a rare phenomenon.

    Authors: Syeda Sahra, Abdullah Jahangir, Qasim Zafar Iqbal, Neville Mobarakai, Allison Glaser and Ahmad Jahangir
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:215
  29. Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that causes toxoplasmosis. Urine is an easily obtained clinical sample that has been widely applied for diagnostic purposes. However, changes in the urinary...

    Authors: Lin-Lin Cui, Chun-Xue Zhou, Bing Han, Sha-Sha Wang, Si-Ying Li, Shi-Chen Xie and Dong-Hui Zhou
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:211
  30. Babesia bovis reproduces sexually in the gut of its tick vector Rhipicephalus microplus, which involves expression of 6cys A and 6cys B proteins. Members of the widely conserved 6cys superfamily are candidates fo...

    Authors: Heba F. Alzan, Reginaldo G. Bastos, Massaro W. Ueti, Jacob M. Laughery, Vignesh A. Rathinasamy, Brian M. Cooke and Carlos E. Suarez
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:210
  31. Cryptosporidium parvum is an enteric protozoan parasite with zoonotic importance and can cause cryptosporidiosis in humans as well as domestic and wild animals worldwide. The IId subtype family (SF) is one of the...

    Authors: Fuchang Yu, Kaihui Zhang, Yilin Wang, Dongfang Li, Zhaohui Cui, Jianying Huang, Sumei Zhang, Xiaoying Li and Longxian Zhang
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:208
  32. Besnoitia darlingi, B. neotomofelis and B. oryctofelisi are closely related coccidian parasites with felids as definitive hosts. These parasites use a variety of animal species as intermediate hosts. North Americ...

    Authors: Gereon Schares, Maike Joeres, Franziska Rachel, Mareen Tuschy, Gábor Á. Czirják, Pavlo Maksimov, Franz J. Conraths and Bettina Wachter
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:201
  33. Blastocystis sp. is a common intestinal protozoan found worldwide. Based on gene analysis, 17 subtypes (STs, ST1–ST17) have been identified, 9 of which have been isolated from humans. Differences in clinical cons...

    Authors: Violetta Sulżyc-Bielicka, Lidia Kołodziejczyk, Małgorzata Adamska, Bogumiła Skotarczak, Sylwia Jaczewska, Krzysztof Safranow, Paweł Bielicki, Józef Kładny and Dariusz Bielicki
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:200
  34. The in vitro activity of the brown seaweed Dictyota spiralis against both Leishmania amazonensis and Trypanosoma cruzi was evaluated in a previous study. Processing by bio-guided fractionation resulted in the iso...

    Authors: Olfa Chiboub, Ines Sifaoui, Manef Abderrabba, Mondher Mejri, José J. Fernández, Ana R. Díaz-Marrero, Jacob Lorenzo-Morales and José E. Piñero
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:198
  35. Triatomine bugs, the vectors of Chagas disease, associate with vertebrate hosts in highly diverse ecotopes. It has been proposed that occupation of new microhabitats may trigger selection for distinct phenotyp...

    Authors: Fernando Abad-Franch, Fernando A. Monteiro, Márcio G. Pavan, James S. Patterson, M. Dolores Bargues, M. Ángeles Zuriaga, Marcelo Aguilar, Charles B. Beard, Santiago Mas-Coma and Michael A. Miles
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:195

    The Correction to this article has been published in Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:235

  36. Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites that can infect nearly all invertebrates and vertebrates, posing a threat to public health and causing large economic losses to animal industries such as thos...

    Authors: Yingfei Ruan, Xiaofei Xu, Qiang He, Li Li, Junrui Guo, Jialing Bao, Guoqing Pan, Tian Li and Zeyang Zhou
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:186
  37. Besnoitia besnoiti is an Apicomplexan protozoa causative of bovine besnoitiosis, a chronic and debilitating disease of cattle, with a variety of pathological findings that could alter some laboratory parameters. ...

    Authors: Luca Villa, Alessia Libera Gazzonis, Sergio Aurelio Zanzani, Silvia Mazzola, Alessia Giordano and Maria Teresa Manfredi
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:154
  38. Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that primarily infects through the oral route. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLRs) play crucial roles in the immune responses generated during par...

    Authors: Jia-Qi Chu, Fei Fei Gao, Weiyun Wu, Chunchao Li, Zhaobin Pan, Jinhui Sun, Hao Wang, Cong Huang, Sang Hyuk Lee, Juan-Hua Quan and Young-Ha Lee
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:153
  39. The prevalence of avian haemosporidian parasites and the factors influencing infection in the Colorado Rocky Mountains are largely unknown. With climate change expected to promote the expansion of vector and a...

    Authors: Marina D. Rodriguez, Paul F. Doherty, Antoinette J. Piaggio and Kathryn P. Huyvaert
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:145
  40. Protozoa in the genus Babesia are transmitted to humans through tick bites and cause babesiosis, a malaria-like illness. Vertical transmission of Babesia spp. has been reported in mammals; however, the exact timi...

    Authors: Katarzyna Tołkacz, Anna Rodo, Agnieszka Wdowiarska, Anna Bajer and Małgorzata Bednarska
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:132
  41. Epidemics of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) are occurring more frequently and spreading faster and farther than before in many areas of the world. The present study aimed to assess a long-lasting emerging epidem...

    Authors: Taiebeh Karimi, Iraj Sharifi, Mohammad Reza Aflatoonian, Behnaz Aflatoonian, Mohammad Ali Mohammadi, Ehsan Salarkia, Zahra Babaei, Farzaneh Zarinkar, Fatemeh Sharifi, Nima Hatami, Ahmad Khosravi, Arsalan Eskandari, Elyas Solimani, Mehdi Shafiee, Masoumeh Mozaffari, Amireh Heshmatkhah…
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:122
  42. Asymptomatic Leishmania infections outnumber clinical infections on the Indian subcontinent (ISC), where disease reservoirs are anthroponotic. Diagnostics which detect active asymptomatic infection, which are sui...

    Authors: Sophie I. Owen, Faria Hossain, Prakash Ghosh, Rajashree Chowdhury, Md. Sakhawat Hossain, Chris Jewell, Isra Cruz, Albert Picado, Dinesh Mondal and Emily R. Adams
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:111
  43. Vectorial transmission is the principal path of infection by Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease. In Argentina, Triatoma infestans is the principal vector; therefore, vector control is the ...

    Authors: L. Abrahan, M. J. Cavallo and I. Amelotti
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:98
  44. Spots and coloring patterns evaluated quantitatively can be used to discriminate and identify possible cryptic species. Species included in the Triatoma dimidiata (Reduviidae: Triatominae) complex are major disea...

    Authors: Daryl D. Cruz, Dennis Denis, Elizabeth Arellano and Carlos N. Ibarra-Cerdeña
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:90
  45. Hammondia hammondi and Toxoplasma gondii are closely related protozoan parasites, but only T. gondii is zoonotic. Both species use felids as definitive hosts and cannot be differentiated by oocyst morphology. In

    Authors: Gereon Schares, Majda Globokar Vrhovec, Mareen Tuschy, Maike Joeres, Andrea Bärwald, Bretislav Koudela, Jitender P. Dubey, Pavlo Maksimov and Franz J. Conraths
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:78
  46. Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite with a complex life cycle and a cosmopolitan host range. The asexual part of its life cycle can be perpetually sustained in a variety of intermediate hosts through a comb...

    Authors: Wen Han Tong, Chris Pavey, Ryan O’Handley and Ajai Vyas
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:77
  47. The waterborne pathogens Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis, Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Cyclospora cayetanensis can cause intestinal diseases in humans. An understanding of their occurrence and transport i...

    Authors: Yingying Fan, Xinrui Wang, Ruohong Yang, Wentao Zhao, Na Li, Yaqiong Guo, Lihua Xiao and Yaoyu Feng
    Citation: Parasites & Vectors 2021 14:66