This project seeks to characterize and isolate schistosome-specific worm and egg antigens important for the immunodiagnosis of infection, develop monoclonal antibodies to them, and develop sensitive and immunologically specific optimal high throughput serodiagnostic systems (RIA, ELISA) utilizing state of the art technology. Specially, we seek to define and isolate species- specific and sex-dependent Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium adult worm or egg antigens which are important in inducing an immune response during infection and which can be utilize for the specific immunodiagnosis of infection in experimental animals and humans. In the case of S. mansoni efforts will focus on the egg antigens responsible for the COP reaction and on sex-dependent worm antigens. In the case of S. haematobium efforts will focus on identifying and then isolating a species-specific egg antigen which can then be used to detect infection in humans and experimentally infected hamsters. Once the appropriate antigens are identified they will be isolated by a combination of chromatographies and electrophoresis and then used for the development of monospecific polyclonal (rabbits) and monoclonal (mice) antibodies to be used as epitope probes and in the further isolation and characterization of the target antigens. The ultimate goal is to develop high throughput serologic systems such as ELISA and RIA with antigens which are specific for the diagnosis of S. mansoni or S. haematobium and which may be used for seroepidemiologic studies to determine prevalence of infection and to predict success of therapy.
| Ramírez-Camejo, Luis A; Maldonado-Morales, Génesis; Bayman, Paul (2017) Differential Microbial Diversity in Drosophila melanogaster: Are Fruit Flies Potential Vectors of Opportunistic Pathogens? Int J Microbiol 2017:8526385 |
| Morales-Rivera, Keyla F; Piñero Cruz, Dalice M; Prieto, Jose A (2017) Crystal structure of (-)-(S)-4-[(2S,3S,4S,Z)-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-hept-5-en-2-yl]-1,3-dioxolan-2-one. Acta Crystallogr E Crystallogr Commun 73:1070-1072 |
| García-Arriaga, Marilyn; Acosta-Santiago, Maxier; Cruz, Antony et al. (2017) Probing the Limits of Supramolecular G-Quadruplexes Using Atomistic Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Inorganica Chim Acta 468:209-222 |
| Huang, Qing; Quiñones, Edwin (2016) A spectroscopic method to determine the activity of the restriction endonuclease EcoRV that involves a single reaction. Anal Biochem 497:103-5 |
| Mège, Pascal; Schizas, Nikolaos V; Reyes, Joselyd García et al. (2015) Genetic seascape of the threatened Caribbean elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, on the Puerto Rico Shelf. Mar Ecol (Berl) 36:195-209 |
| Morales-Rivera, Amarilys; Hernández-Burgos, Mayté M; Martínez-Rivera, Arlene et al. (2014) Anxiolytic effects of oxytocin in cue-induced cocaine seeking behavior in rats. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 231:4145-55 |
| Ramírez-Camejo, Luis A; Torres-Ocampo, Ana P; Agosto-Rivera, José L et al. (2014) An opportunistic human pathogen on the fly: strains of Aspergillus flavus vary in virulence in Drosophila melanogaster. Med Mycol 52:211-9 |
| Martínez-Rivera, Arlene; Rodríguez-Borrero, Enrique; Matías-Alemán, María et al. (2013) Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 within nucleus accumbens shell modulates environment-elicited cocaine conditioning expression. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 110:154-60 |
| Galindo-Cardona, Alberto; Acevedo-Gonzalez, Jenny P; Rivera-Marchand, Bert et al. (2013) Genetic structure of the gentle Africanized honey bee population (gAHB) in Puerto Rico. BMC Genet 14:65 |
| Santiago-Rodriguez, Tasha M; Rivera, Jessica I; Coradin, Mariel et al. (2013) Antibiotic-resistance and virulence genes in Enterococcus isolated from tropical recreational waters. J Water Health 11:387-96 |
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