Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0042961 (volvulus)
 4,305 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Simulium sanctipauli and S. yahense have been incriminated as the main vectors of Onchocerca volvulus in the rain-forest zone of Liberia. An accurate identification of the females of the two species which breed in different types of water-courses but are morphologically similar is essential for a proper study of their epidemiological importance and the planning of control measures. Various external characters were examined for their diagnostic value by the comparison of identifications using these characters and those based on enzyme electrophoresis (phosphoglucomutase, trehalase). It was shown that the females of the two species can be separated reliably by the use of external morphological characters. The occasional finding in the same fly of phosphoglucomutase variants typical for each species indicated the possible occurrence of natural hybridization between S. sanctipauli and S. yahense.
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PMID:Morphological identification of simulium sanctipauli and S. yahense in Liberia and comparison of results with those of enzyme electrophoresis. 624 Aug 18

Onchocerciasis is a disease that engages the attention of most researchers. Presently, there is not an ideal onchocerciatic agent, hence the search must continues. Consequently alpha, alpha-trehalose-6-phosphate was synthesised and assessed for onchocerciatic activity against O. volvulus; using diethylcarbamizine citrate as the control drug. Results from this study showed that alpha, alpha-trehalose-6-phosphate is a glucose analogue with effective micro and macro-filaricidal agent, better than that of the control drug. The inhibitory action of this compound on enzyme trehalase is a postulate for the mechanism of action of trehalose-6-phosphate. The structure-activity relationship of this new compound is fully discussed. This study postulates that this compound could be used to eradicate onchocerciasis both in man and animals.
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PMID:Trehalose-6-phosphate-potent anti-onchocerciatic agent. 1049 54

The sugar trehalose is claimed to be important in the physiology of nematodes where it may function in sugar transport, energy storage and protection against environmental stresses. In this study we investigated the role of trehalose metabolism in nematodes, using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model, and also identified complementary DNA clones putatively encoding genes involved in trehalose pathways in filarial nematodes. In C. elegans two putative trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (tps) genes encode the enzymes that catalyse trehalose synthesis and five putative trehalase (tre) genes encode enzymes catalysing hydrolysis of the sugar. We showed by RT-PCR or Northern analysis that each of these genes is expressed as mRNA at all stages of the C. elegans life cycle. Database searches and sequencing of expressed sequence tag clones revealed that at least one tps gene and two tre genes are expressed in the filarial nematode Brugia malayi, while one tps gene and at least one tre gene were identified for Onchocerca volvulus. We used the feeding method of RNA interference in C. elegans to knock down temporarily the expression of each of the tps and tre genes. Semiquantitative RT-PCR analysis confirmed that expression of each gene was silenced by RNA interference. We did not observe an obvious phenotype for any of the genes silenced individually but gas-chromatographic analysis showed >90% decline in trehalose levels when both tps genes were targeted simultaneously. This decline in trehalose content did not affect viability or development of the nematodes.
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PMID:Trehalose metabolism genes in Caenorhabditis elegans and filarial nematodes. 1367 35