Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review the finding that urocanic acid in the skin is a chemoattractant for the parasitic nematode Strongyloides stercoralis.

Download TWiP #71 (60 MB .mp3, 84 minutes).

Links for this episode:

• Strongyloides stercoralis (TWiP #71)
• Urocanic acid is a S. stercoralis chemoattractant (PNAS)
• Chemical trails of parasites (PNAS)
• Urocanic acid (Wikipedia)
• Candiru (Wikipedia)
• Your Inner Fish (PBS)
• Letters read on TWiP 71

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss the finding of Gnathostoma nematodes in Asian swamp eels from US live markets and wild populations.

Links for this episode:

• Guinea worm eradication at risk (Science)
• Gnathostomiasis (CDC)
• Asian swamp eel
• Gnathostoma in live swamp eels (EID)
• Interview with Rebecca Cole (YouTube)
• Letters read on TWiP 70

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss an increase in the altitude of malaria distribution in warmer years in the highlands of Colombia and Ethiopia.

Links for this episode:

• Altitudinal changes in malaria incidence (Science)
• El Niño (Wikipedia)
• NOAA El Niño page
• Image credit: Science
• Letters read on TWiP 69

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello Dickson Despommier, and Sagi Shapira

Vincent, Dickson, and Sagi discuss evidence that the pathogen Trypanosoma brucei undergoes meiosis and sexual reproduction.

Links for this episode:

• Meiosis and haploid gametes in T. brucei (Curr Biol)
• Meiosis (Wikipedia)
• Letters read on TWiP 68

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson explain the genetic and molecular basis of drug resistance in Schistosoma mansonii.

Links for this episode:

• Basis of resistance to oxamniquine (Science)
• Oxamniquine (Wikipedia)
• Letters read on TWiP 67

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss reversible inhibitors of cruzipain as new drugs for treating Chagas disease.

Links for this episode:

• Reversible cysteine protease inhibitors for Chagas (AAC)
• New drug candidates for Chagas (ScienceDaily)
• Pancake ice (YouTube)
• Letters read on TWiP 66

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson consider the effects of climate change on parasitic diseases.

Links for this episode:

• Climate change and infectious diseases (Science)
• The more parasites the better? (Science)
• Host and parasite control disease risk (PNAS)
• Parasites dominate food web links (PNAS)
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
• Image credit: PLoS One
• Letters read on TWiP 65

Dickson's Pick

Neglected by Shelly Xie (YouTube)

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review three novel approaches to antimalarial chemotherapy.

Links for this episode:

• Targeting PI(4)K to eliminate malaria (Nature)
• Antimicrobial peptides to target sporogonic stages of malaria (PLoS Path)
• Small molecule blocks malaria invasion of mosquito (PLoS Path)
• Photo credit
• Letters read on TWiP 64

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss evidence that the malaria parasite originated in gorillas.

Links for this episode:

• Great apes and zoonoses (Science)
• Source of human malaria (PNAS)
• Origin of human malaria parasite in gorillas (Nature)
• Ape Plasmodium in Cameroon not infecting humans (PNAS)
• No Plasmodium in greater spot-nosed monkey (Int J Parasit)
• TWiP 13: Toxoplasmosis
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiP 62

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss the high diversity of malaria parasites in West African bats, and a vaccine against hookworm.

Links for this episode:

• High diversity of West African bat malaria parasites (PNAS)
• Human hookworm vaccine (Vaccine)
• Gongylonema infection in human (Am J Trop Med Hyg) 
• Letters read on TWiP 62

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

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