Blastocystis: Pathogen or Passenger?
An Evaluation of 101 Years of Research
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Open AccessResistance of Blastocystis to chlorine and hydrogen peroxide
Blastocystis is a ubiquitous, widely distributed protist inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract of humans and other animals. The organism is genetically diverse, and so far, at least 28 subtypes (STs) have been id...
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Open AccessInfection with pathogenic Blastocystis ST7 is associated with decreased bacterial diversity and altered gut microbiome profiles in diarrheal patients
Blastocystis is a common protistan parasite inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals. While there are increasing reports characterizing the associations between Blastocystis and the gut microbi...
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Open AccessInteractions between Blastocystis subtype ST4 and gut microbiota in vitro
Blastocystis ST4 is a common protistan parasite of the gastrointestinal tract of humans and a wide range of animals. While it has been suggested that colonization with ST4 is associated with healthy gut microbiot...
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Open AccessPrevalence and molecular subty** of Blastocystis in patients with Clostridium difficile infection, Singapore
Blastocystis is a common anaerobic colonic protist in humans with controversial pathogenicity. Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is the commonest cause of infectious diarrhea in healthcare settings. The preval...
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Open AccessRobust continuous in vitro culture of the Plasmodium cynomolgi erythrocytic stages
The ability to culture pathogenic organisms substantially enhances the quest for fundamental knowledge and the development of vaccines and drugs. Thus, the elaboration of a protocol for the in vitro cultivatio...
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Open AccessSuccessful Genetic Transfection of the Colonic Protistan Parasite Blastocystis for Reliable Expression of Ectopic Genes
The microbial parasite Blastocystis colonizes the large intestines of numerous animal species and increasing evidence has linked Blastocystis infection to enteric diseases with signs and symptoms including abdomi...
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Chapter
The Mitochondrion-Related Organelles of Blastocystis
Blastocystis is an anaerobic microbial eukaryote that inhabits the gut of various animals. While it was considered to be a parasite, its pathogenicity is controversial, since recent estimations suggest that Blas...
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Protocol
Screening for Drugs Against the Plasmodium falciparum Digestive Vacuole by Imaging Flow Cytometry
Phenotypic assays are increasingly employed to provide clues about drug mechanisms. In antimalarial drug screening, however, the majority of assays are designed to only measure parasite-killing activity. We de...
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Open AccessHaem-activated promiscuous targeting of artemisinin in Plasmodium falciparum
The mechanism of action of artemisinin and its derivatives, the most potent of the anti-malarial drugs, is not completely understood. Here we present an unbiased chemical proteomics analysis to directly explor...
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Book
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Blastocystis–Host Interactions: Insights from In Vitro Model Systems
The enteric protistan parasite Blastocystis is an extracellular luminal organism of controversial clinical relevance. In the absence of an established animal model to study pathogenesis, in vitro systems provide ...
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Conclusions
The most important aspects of the results obtained in the 101 years of research in Blastocystis are evaluated in this short chapter concluding the statement that this organism still remains an enigma, although al...
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Landmarks in the Discovery of Blastocystis Stages
This chapter represents a list of papers that were considered by the authors of this book as important “breakthroughs” in the knowledge of the different features in the history of the Blastocystis research during...
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Clinical Aspects of Blastocystis Infections: Advancements Amidst Controversies
Blastocystis is a noninvasive, luminal parasite commonly reported in human stool samples. Its clinical presentation is diverse ranging between acute diarrhea and mild chronic abdominal discomfort. ...
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Current Views on the Clinical Relevance of Blastocystis spp.
Blastocystis is an enteric protistan parasite of uncertain clinical relevance. Recent studies indicate that the parasite is a species complex and humans are potentially hosts to nine Blastocystis subtypes, most o...
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Blastocystis exhibits inter- and intra-subtype variation in cysteine protease activity
Blastocystis is an enteric protistan parasite of zoonotic potential and poorly understood pathogenesis. We have previously reported that Blastocystis cysteine proteases can degrade human ...
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Predominance of subtype 3 among Blastocystis isolates from a major hospital in Singapore
Blastocystis is an enteric protozoan parasite commonly found in humans and animals. Phylogenetic and genotypic analyses have shown that Blastocystis exhibits extreme genetic diversity, an...
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Mitochondrial Remnant in Blastocystis
The intestinal protozoan Blastocystis is an anaerobic organism that contains from a few to numerous mitochondria-like organelles (MLOs). The organelles are round to ovoid in shape, are 0.5–2 μm in diamete...
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Programmed Cell Death and the Enteric Protozoan Parasite Blastocystis hominis: Perspectives and Prospects
The propensity for unicellular eukaryotes to undergo programmed cell death (PCD) has been well documented in recent years. This fascinating yet somewhat counterintuitive phenomenon has been reported to occur f...
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Protease activity of Blastocystis hominis
Parasite-derived proteases are important for the parasite life cycle and the pathogenesis of the disease they produce. Proteases of intestinal protozoan parasite Blastocystis hominis were studied for the first ti...
