Designing a New Vaccine: Jonathan Ravdin and Mohamed Abd-Alla are developing a vaccine to prevent parasitic disease
Office of the Vice President for Research: Many of us take clean drinking water and a sanitary food supply for granted. In fact, for many parts of the world the lack of clean drinking water and unsanitary food conditions can lead to a disease called amebiasis.
Amebiasis is caused by a single-celled parasite called Entamoeba histolytica (E. histolytica). E. histolytica is a common parasitic amoeba of humans that can cause breakdown of body tissues during infection and is contracted by swallowing contaminated food or water.
Worldwide, in endemic areas such as India, Africa, Asia, Mexico, and South America, up to 60 percent of the population is infected each year. Of those with infections, up to 10 percent develop symptoms such as colitis or liver abscess leading to this being among the most serious parasitic infections worldwide with up to 100 million cases of the disease annually and 100,000 deaths.
Thanks to research being done by Jonathan Ravdin, Nesbitt Professor and Chairman, and Mohamed Abd-Alla, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, there may soon be a vaccine to prevent amebiasis.
Read the full article: http://www.research.umn.edu/spotlight/ravdin.html
Learn more about this topic:
Abd-Alla MD, Ravdin JI. Diagnosis of amoebic colitis by antigen capture ELISA in patients presenting with acute diarrhoea in Cairo, Egypt. Trop Med Int Health. 2002 Apr;7(4):365-70.
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Abd-Alla MD, Jackson TF, Soong GC, Mazanec M, Ravdin JI. Identification of the Entamoeba histolytica galactose-inhibitable lectin epitopes recognized by human immunoglobulin A antibodies following cure of amebic liver abscess. Infect.Immun. 2004 Jul;72(7):3974-3980.
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Stauffer W, Ravdin JI. Entamoeba histolytica: an update. Curr.Opin.Infect.Dis. 2003 Oct;16(5):479-485.
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