Tap wealth of local products emerging to fight 'neglected' diseases of poor: study Nov 3, 2009
Public release date: 3-Nov-2009. Contact: Terry Collins. (EurekAlert!)
Frank grant split among three new proposals Oct 30, 2009
Estrada, whose project SGA funded the most money to roughly $4,800, involves a study of kissing bugs, which are believed to be the cause Chagas Disease. Burns s project is to stage a performance of "The Municipal Abbatoir," written by Tennessee Williams, that will be showcased in this year s Loyola One-Act Festival and possibly entered in the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival. (The Maroon, LA)
Eisai and DNDi Enter Collaboration and License Agreement to Develop New Drug for Chagas Disease Sep 30, 2009
Tokyo, Sept 29, 2009 - (JCN Newswire) - Eisai Co., Ltd. and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a non-profit independent foundation, announced today that they have signed a collaboration and license agreement for the clinical development of a promising new drug for the treatment of Chagas disease, a fatal infectious disease that threatens 100 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ravuconazole, an anti-fungal drug discovered and developed by Eisai, has been shown in... (JCN Network, Japan)
Students go on summer field study Sep 18, 2009
Guatemala expedition focuses on Chagas disease ... The bugs are the primary transmitters of Chagas disease ... Patricia Dorn, a professor of biological science, led several of her students on a ten- day tropical field study in Guatemala in June, studying kissing bugs and their role in spreading Chagas disease. (The Maroon, LA)
Trap Would Help Keep Stink Bugs Outdoors Aug 4, 2009
(May 12, 2009) Entomopathogenic fungi may be a safe and efficient means of controlling Triatoma infestans, the bug that helps spread Chagas disease, according to new research conducted in Argentina. The study shows. (Science Daily)
Researchers Help Crack Parasite Genome, Identify Drug Leads Jul 21, 2009
ScienceDaily (July 20, 2009) Two recent UCSF research papers are marking major breakthroughs in the effort to tackle schistosomiasis (bilharzia), a tropical disease that infects more than 200 million people worldwide and causes long-term debilitating illness and occasional paralysis or death. One paper documents a multinational success, led by a team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, in England, in sequencing the genome of the Schistosoma mansoni blood fluke, which has taken nearly a... (Science Daily)
UCSF researchers help crack parasite genome, identify drug leads Jul 16, 2009
Public release date: 15-Jul-2009. Contact: Kristen Bole. (EurekAlert!)
Insects' Sex Scents Can Save Lives Jun 22, 2009
In South America there are the two blood-sucking triatomines Rhodnius prolixus and Triatoma brasliensis, which carry parasites that spread the deadly Chagas disease that affects millions of people in South America each year. By trying to identify the substances that the insects send out either to attract others of the same species or to alarm others about danger, it will be possible to control these insects. (Science Daily)
Chemists Develop Distributed Drug Discovery: Finding Drugs For Neglected Diseases Jun 19, 2009
ScienceDaily (June 18, 2009) Researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) have developed Distributed Drug Discovery (D3), a new low-cost strategy to accelerate the discovery of drugs to treat neglected diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy, leshmaniasis, dengue fever, and Chagas disease. See also. (Science Daily)
U.S. swine flu deaths hit double digits May 22, 2009
Discussions were postponed on fighting Chagas disease, a scourge in Latin American countries, and the first-ever WHO resolution addressing hepatitis was dropped from the meeting's agenda. But WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said the assembly was still taking on a "broad agenda" that went far beyond swine flu to deal with improving basic health care and tackling global killers like TB.. (MSNBC -- Health)
Proteomic and network analysis characterize stage-specific metabolism in Trypanosoma cruzi May 17, 2009
Trypanosoma cruzi is a Kinetoplastid parasite of humans and is the cause of Chagas disease, a potentially lethal condition affecting the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems of the human host. Constraint-based modeling has emerged in the last decade as a useful approach to integrating genomic and other high-throughput data sets with more traditional, experimental data acquired through decades of research and published in the literature. (BioMed Central)
Fungi Pathogenic To Insects Are New Tool In Fight Against Chagas Disease May 13, 2009
ScienceDaily (May 12, 2009) Entomopathogenic fungi may be a safe and efficient means of controlling Triatoma infestans, the bug that helps spread Chagas disease, according to new research conducted in Argentina ... Chagas disease is the most relevant parasitic disease in Latin America, being a major burden that affects mostly poor human populations living in rural areas ... The authors emphasize that these results might help to provide a safe and efficient alternative to overcome bug... (Science Daily)
The Obama Flu? May 1, 2009
With them has come a raft of diseases never seen here before, or eradicated years ago: multiple drug resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, measles, syphilis, Chagas disease, dengue fever and new strains of hepatitis. Even bed bugs have invaded half the American states. (Human Events Online)
Protein That Makes Phosphate Chains In Yeast Revealed; Implications On Crops, Human Diseases Apr 30, 2009
The research could also pave the way for new treatments for diseases such as sleeping sickness and Chagas disease, as the parasites that cause them need polyphosphate chains to survive. Journal reference. (Science Daily)
American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 15, 2009 Apr 20, 2009
Those hard-to-treat diseases include leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, and Chagas disease. These conditions infect millions of people worldwide each year, killing thousands. (EurekAlert!)
Genetically Distinct Carriers Of Chagas Disease-causing Parasite Live Together Mar 18, 2009
18, 2009) Researchers have found living together the known carrier species for the Chagas disease-causing parasite Triatoma dimidiata (also known as "kissing bugs") and a cryptic species that looks the same but is genetically distinct from the known carrier species ... Chagas disease remains the leading cause of parasitic illness in Latin America, with approximately 10 million people infected ... "The best hope in curbing Chagas disease lies with controlling the kissing bugs that spread the... (Science Daily)
Exotic ills may grow with recession Mar 11, 2009
Last year, a Virginia Tech study predicted that a 1 degree Celsius temperature rise predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change would bring the bugs that carry Chagas disease into the central U.S. Will insect carriers thrive in the new region. American health officials thought they had conquered most such diseases after World War II through a combination of mosquito-killing campaigns and public health measures like draining swamps, improved housing, better sewage and waste... (MSNBC -- Health)
Charles Darwin anniversary: Down House, Kent Feb 12, 2009
One explanation for his ill health is that in South America he had been bitten by a Benchuca bug a specimen is on display which gave him Chagas disease, a parasitic disease of the intestine. "The other explanation is that the illness is psychosomatic," said Cathy. (Telegraph.co.uk)
It's a Small World -- Watch Out for New Diseases Feb 8, 2009
One of the latest diseases starting to show up in the United States is Chagas Disease, a condition that rarely causes early symptoms, but if left untreated, can cause an enlarged heart or an irregular heartbeat which can be potentially life threatening ... What is Chagas Disease ... "Most Americans do not have to worry about contracting Chagas Disease -- even if they are traveling to regions where it is more prevalent," says Dr. Paul Stromberg, veterinary pathologist at Ohio State University and... (Pekin Times, IL)
More Funds Needed for Lesser Known Tropical Diseases Feb 7, 2009
Diseases such as sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis and Chagas disease affect more than 13 million people around the world each year but collectively received only 4. 9 percent of total funds. (MEDLINEplus)
