Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0017536 (giardiasis)
 1,714 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Giardia lamblia, a cause of diarrheal disease throughout the world, is a protozoan parasite that thrives in the small intestine. It is shown here that wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), a naturally occurring lectin widely consumed in normal human diets, reversibly inhibits the growth of G. lamblia trophozoites in vitro, and reduces infection by G. muris in the adult mouse model of giardiasis. The inhibitory effect was dose related, not associated with cytotoxicity and reversed by N-acetyl-D-glucosamine in accordance with the known specificity of the lectin and in agreement with the presence of GlcNAc residues on the surface membrane of G. lamblia trophozoites. Cell cycle analysis revealed that parasites grown in the presence of WGA are arrested in the G2/M phase, providing an explanation for the lectin-induced inhibition of cell proliferation. Comparison of electrophoretic profiles by lectin blot analysis revealed both glycoprotein induction and suppression in growth-arrested organisms. Our findings raise the possibility that blocking trophozoite growth with naturally occurring dietary lectins may influence the course of giardiasis. In addition, the study of cell cycle arrest by WGA may provide a model to study the regulation of cell division in lower eukaryotes.
J Clin Invest 1994 Dec
PMID:Growth inhibition of the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia by a dietary lectin is associated with arrest of the cell cycle. 798 83

Giardiasis is the most common small intestinal protozoal infection and is found worldwide. The mechanisms by which Giardia duodenalis (= G. lamblia) produces chronic diarrhoea and malabsorption have still not been clearly defined. Many infections are associated with mild to moderate mucosal damage which, in animal models of infection, have functional correlates. Possible mechanisms include direct physical injury, release of parasite products such as proteinases or lectin, and mucosal inflammation associated with T cell activation and cytokine release. Other possible mechanisms of malabsorption include associated bacterial overgrowth and bile salt deconjugation, bile salt uptake by the parasite with depletion of intraluminal bile salts, and inhibition of pancreatic hydrolytic enzymes. Thus, there is no single mechanism to explain the diarrhoea and malabsorption caused by Giardia, which currently should be regarded as a multifactorial process.
Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1993 Dec
PMID:Diarrhoeal disease: current concepts and future challenges. Pathogenesis of giardiasis. 810 43

Empirical antimicrobial therapy is indicated in patients with diarrhoea who have high fever and systemic toxicity, dysenteric disease, or travellers' diarrhoea. Antimicrobials are essential for those with severe shigellosis and amoebiasis. They are useful or possibly useful for other forms of diarrhoeal disease including amoebiasis (milder forms), campylobacteriosis, cholera, giardiasis, shigellosis, and diarrhoea due to a variety of other laboratory-defined bacterial enteropathogens. Furazolidone is useful in infantile giardiasis and mildly effective in other forms of bacterial diarrhoea. Trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole is effective against Shigella spp. in ost parts of the world. Erythromycin is considered the treatment of choice for campylobacteriosis. For adults, the quinolone antimicrobials represent the most useful class of drugs for bacterial enteropathogens. Several dilemmas currently exist in the area. They include the lack of drugs for the therapy of trimethoprim-resistant shigellosis in children, overuse of antimicrobials in the developing world, and the potential for post-treatment prolongation of intestinal excretion of non-typhoid salmonellae. Antimicrobial chemoprophylaxis can be used in the rare person from an industrialized area during brief travels to a tropical region who has a serious underlying medical problem, cannot exercise care in what is eaten and drunk, and will have the purpose of the trip put at jeopardy should any illness develop (even that rendered short-term by effective therapy). For most people, therapy of illness is preferred to prophylaxis.
Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1993 Dec
PMID:Diarrhoeal disease: current concepts and future challenges. Antimicrobial therapy and prophylaxis. 810 47

A sample of 300 sexually-active adults was selected at random from patients, from the rural area of Malenga Makali, Tanzania, who were attending a dispensary because they had diarrhoea of at least 2 weeks' duration. The potential associations between the patient's health (in terms of the World Health Organization's clinical definition of AIDS), HIV-1 seroprevalence and malaria and other parasitic infections were then investigated. Although, HIV-1 seroprevalence was 20.6% overall, the level of seroprevalence was directly correlated with the distance between the patients' home villages and the nearest main road. Strict application of the clinical definition of AIDS gave 98.7% specificity, 46% sensitivity and a predictive value of 90.6% when validated by HIV-1 seropositivity. Although malaria infection was more common in HIV-1 seropositives than in the seronegatives, the intensity of the Plasmodium falciparum infections, intestinal amoebiasis and giardiasis did not appear to be correlated with HIV-1 infection. In contrast, intestinal infections with Cryptosporidium parvum and Isospora belli were virtually restricted to HIV-1 seropositive individuals who had had diarrhoea for a relatively long time.
Ann Trop Med Parasitol 1993 Dec
PMID:HIV-1 and parasitic infections in rural Tanzania. 812 20

The authors report a case of seronegative polyarthritis resistant to the anti-inflammatory therapy in a 16-year-old male with intermittent diarrhea. A stool examination showed the presence of cysts of Giardia lamblia and an immunological study detected a partial serum IgA deficiency, including its secretory fraction. Based on clinical, analytical and radiological findings and the clinical improvement after treatment with metronidazole, a diagnosis of reactive arthritis associated to chronic giardiasis was made. Authors make a brief review of the literature the regarding this case.
Acta Med Port 1993 Dec
PMID:[Reactive arthritis caused by Giardia lamblia in a patient with secretory IgA deficiency]. 816 30

Infection with Giardia lamblia (G. duodenalis, G. intestinalis) is common all over the world, especially in children. Traditional diagnosis by faecal microscopy has only moderate sensitivity; serological tests, although not always positive, are acceptable to patients and useful in epidemiological studies. We show here that serum IgM separated by column chromatography and assayed by an indirect ELISA test can be a useful tool for the diagnosis of giardiasis. One hundred and thirty-nine positive sera (based on a single faecal examination), and 97 negative serum samples from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were examined. Taking positive results as being 2 s.d. above the mean of the controls, there were 117 positive results among the microscopically negative controls (3% false positives). The sensitivity of the test was 84% and the specificity 97%; the predictive value of a positive result is 97.5% and of a negative one 81%.
J Trop Med Hyg 1993 Dec
PMID:ELISA for detection of anti-Giardia specific IgM: response in serum. 825 9

During a six-year period, 29 children (aged 0.7-13.5 years, mean 3.3 years) suffering from chronic diarrhoea due to giardiasis were studied. The incidence of this illness was 81 per 1,000,000 per year among children aged 0- < 7 years. According to growth charts, relative height and weight of the patients decreased significantly (both approximately 0.5 SD) from before the onset of diarrhoea to the time of diagnosis and subsequently increased up to the end of catch-up growth. Small intestinal mucosal specimens were studied. Two patients had severe villous atrophy, 8 moderate abnormalities, 6 only slight changes and 13 biopsies were normal. D-xylose or lactose malabsorption was detected in 25% of the patients. The lactose malabsorption was due to hereditary low lactase levels. None of the patients with a Danish ethnic background showed lactose malabsorption. D-xylose absorption and the relative weight loss of the patients correlated with the degree of mucosal damage. Patients with persistent diarrhoea (n = 19) were younger and had a shorter duration of diarrhoeal illness and a more significant weight reduction than those with intermittent diarrhoea (n = 10). However, the age at onset of symptoms was similar in the two groups (medians 1.3 years). Seven patients contracted the disease abroad. They all developed persistent diarrhoea and had a more severe course of the illness than those who acquired the disease in Denmark.
Ugeskr Laeger 1993 Dec 13
PMID:[Giardiasis in children with chronic diarrhea. Incidence, growth, clinical symptoms and changes in the small intestine]. 827 27

Serodiagnosis of giardiasis by counterimmunoelectrophoresis assay (CIEP) and indirect immunofluorescence test (IFAT) were evaluated versus stool examination. Giardia lamblia antibodies were detected in sera of 46.9% and 53.1% using CIEP and IFAT respectively out of 49 giardiasis-infected children (5-10 years) diagnosed microscopically. Among the control group (22 children) 13.6% and 18.2% were positive by CIEP and IFAT respectively. The findings of the study showed that we can not rely on serology to diagnose giardiasis specially in cases with low excretion rates.
J Egypt Soc Parasitol 1993 Dec
PMID:Serodiagnosis of giardiasis by counterimmunoelectrophoresis and indirect immunofluorescence tests. 830 34

Giardia lamblia is recognized as one of the most common agents for diarrhea world wide. To date, microscopical examination of stool samples is the gold standard for giardiasis diagnosis. However, intermittence of the Giardia cycle and some medications may cause temporary disappearance of cysts from stools, thus giving false negative results. In the present study, we evaluated a commercially available enzyme immunoassay kit (GiardEIA) for the detection of Giardia copro-antigens and compared the results with those of the merthiolate-iodine-formaldehyde concentration (MIFC) microscopical examination technique. Sixty-nine fecal samples from children 2-12 years old were emulsified and allowed to react with a Giardia specific antibody, then with an enzyme conjugated antibody and the reaction was developed colorimetrically. Seventy-four percent of the parasitologically positive Giardia cases were also positive by GiardEIA while 26% of the microscopically negative cases were positive by the assay. GiardEIA gave negative results with 82% and 100% of stools with helminthic and protozoan (other than Giardia) infections, respectively. Similarly, no cross-reactivity was found with any of the bacterial agents including Shigella flexneri, pathogenic E. coli, Klebsiella spp. and Salmonella typhi. GiardEIA is a simple assay that can diagnose 24 samples in less than an hour without the need for any special equipment and can be useful in epidemiological surveys and in giardiasis outbreaks.
J Egypt Soc Parasitol 1995 Dec
PMID:Evaluation of GiardEIA kit for giardiasis diagnosis. 858 58

Twenty patients with intestinal giardiasis, already resistant to 3-5 previous courses of oral metronidazole, were randomly distributed into 2 different groups: 10 subjects were given oral albendazole (440 mg/two times per day for 7 days) and 10 were submitted to the association of albendazole (400 mg/two times per day for 7 days) plus metronidazole (250 mg/three times per day for 7 days). All patients were evaluated both for clinical and parasitological status, immediately before and after therapy and, then, 4 weeks later. Only 3 patients of those treated with albendazole alone, showed a clinical and parasitological remission at the end of therapy, and one of them relapsed 4 weeks later. All patients who underwent albendazolemetronidazole association responded to the therapy and all except one were defined as "cured" 4 weeks later. Our study demonstrates that albendazole alone is not an effective therapeutic alternative for "metronidazole-resistant" giardiasis. The association of metronidazole plus albendazole seems synergic and deserves further studies.
Clin Ter 1995 Dec
PMID:[Synergic effect of albendazole plus metronidazole association in the treatment of metronidazole-resistant giardiasis]. 868 95


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