Novel targets for new drug development are urgently required to combat malaria, a disease that puts half of the world's population at risk. One group of enzymes identified within the genome of the most lethal of the causative ...

Over the last decade a significant number of studies have highlighted the central role of host antimicrobial (or defence) peptides in modulating the response of innate immune cells to pathogen-associated ligands. In humans, ...

During helminth infections, alternatively activated macrophages (AAMacs) are key to promoting Th2 responses and suppressing Th1-driven inflammatory pathology. Th2 cytokines IL-4 and/or IL-13 are believed to be important ...

Helminth pathogens express papain-like cysteine peptidases, termed cathepsins, which have important roles in virulence, including host entry, tissue migration and the suppression of host immune responses. The liver fluke ...

The control of helminth diseases of people and livestock continues to rely on the widespread use of anti-helminthic drugs. However, concerns with the appearance of drug resistant parasites and the presence of pesticide ...

The nature of the immune response to infection is dependent on the type of infecting organism. Intracellular organisms such as Toxoplasma gondii stimulate a Th1-driven response associated with production of IL-12, IFN-?, ...

To infect their mammalian hosts, Fasciola hepatica larvae must penetrate and traverse the intestinal wall of the duodenum, move through the peritoneum, and penetrate the liver. After migrating through and feeding on the ...

The M17 leucine aminopeptidase of the intraerythrocytic stages of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum (PfLAP) plays it role in releasing amino acids from host hemoglobin that are used for parasite protein synthesis, ...