ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2537-3466
Current Organisation
The University of Edinburgh
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 24-08-2011
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182011001235
Abstract: Where very young children come into contact with water containing schistosome cercariae, infections occur and schistosomiasis can be found. In high transmission environments, where mothers daily bathe their children with environmentally drawn water, many infants and preschool-aged children have schistosomiasis. This ‘new’ burden, inclusive of co-infections with Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma mansoni , is being formally explored as infected children are not presently targeted to receive praziquantel (PZQ) within current preventive chemotherapy c aigns. Thus an important PZQ treatment gap exists whereby infected children might wait up to 4–5 years before receiving first treatment in school. International treatment guidelines, set within national treatment platforms, are presently being modified to provide earlier access to medication(s). Although detailed pharmacokinetic studies are needed, to facilitate pragmatic dosing in the field, an extended ‘dose pole’ has been devised and epidemiological monitoring has shown that administration of PZQ (40 mg/kg), in either crushed tablet or liquid suspension, is both safe and effective in this younger age-class drug efficacy, however, against S. mansoni appears to diminish after repeated rounds of treatment. Thus use of PZQ should be combined with appropriate health education/water hygiene improvements for both child and mother to bring forth a more enduring solution.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 31-03-2021
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PNTD.0009254
Abstract: In order to protect health workers from SARS-CoV-2, there is need to characterise the different types of patient facing health workers. Our first aim was to determine both the infection status and seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in health workers. Our second aim was to evaluate the occupational and demographic predictors of seropositivity to inform the country’s infection prevention and control (IPC) strategy. We invited 713 staff members at 24 out of 35 health facilities in the City of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Compliance to testing was defined as the willingness to uptake COVID-19 testing by answering a questionnaire and providing s les for both antibody testing and PCR testing. SARS-COV-2 antibodies were detected using a rapid diagnostic test kit and SAR-COV-2 infection was determined by real-time (RT)-PCR. Of the 713 participants, 635(89%) consented to answering the questionnaire and providing blood s le for antibody testing while 560 (78.5%) agreed to provide nasopharyngeal swabs for the PCR SARS-CoV-2 testing. Of the 635 people (aged 18–73) providing a blood s le 39.1% reported a history of past COVID-19 symptoms while 14.2% reported having current symptoms of COVID-19. The most-prevalent co-morbidity among this group was hypertension (22.0%) followed by asthma (7.0%) and diabetes (6.0%). The SARS-CoV-2 sero-prevalence was 8.9%. Of the 560 participants tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection, 2 participants (0.36%) were positive for SAR-CoV-2 infection by PCR testing. None of the SARS-CoV-2 antibody positive people were positive for SAR-CoV-2 infection by PCR testing. In addition to clinical staff, several patient-facing health workers were characterised within Zimbabwe’s health system and the seroprevalence data indicated that previous exposure to SAR-CoV-2 had occurred across the full spectrum of patient-facing staff with nurses and nurse aides having the highest seroprevalence. Our results highlight the need for including the various health workers in IPC strategies in health centres to ensure effective biosecurity and biosafety.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 15-05-2019
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 24-01-2022
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PNTD.0010151
Abstract: Schistosoma haematobium is the leading cause of urogenital schistosomiasis and it is recognised as a class 1 carcinogen due to the robust association of infection with bladder cancer. In schistosomes, tetraspanins (TSPs) are abundantly present in different parasite proteomes and could be potential diagnostic candidates due to their accessibility to the host immune system. The large extracellular loops of six TSPs from the secretome (including the soluble excretory/secretory products, tegument and extracellular vesicles) of S . haematobium ( Sh -TSP-2, Sh -TSP-4, Sh -TSP-5, Sh -TSP-6, Sh -TSP-18 and Sh -TSP-23) were expressed in a bacterial expression system and polyclonal antibodies were raised to the recombinant proteins to confirm the anatomical sites of expression within the parasite. Sh -TSP-2, and Sh -TSP-18 were identified on the tegument, whereas Sh -TSP-4, Sh -TSP-5, Sh -TSP-6 and Sh -TSP-23 were identified both on the tegument and internal tissues of adult parasites. The mRNAs encoding these TSPs were differentially expressed throughout all schistosome developmental stages tested. The potential diagnostic value of three of these Sh -TSPs was assessed using the urine of in iduals (stratified by infection intensity) from an endemic area of Zimbabwe. The three Sh -TSPs were the targets of urine IgG responses in all cohorts, including in iduals with very low levels of infection (those positive for circulating anodic antigen but negative for eggs by microscopy). This study provides new antigen candidates to immunologically diagnose S . haematobium infection, and the work presented here provides compelling evidence for the use of a biomarker signature to enhance the diagnostic capability of these tetraspanins.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2021
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 05-05-2015
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 10-12-2018
DOI: 10.1101/486662
Abstract: Schistosomiasis is a neglected disease affecting hundreds of millions worldwide. Of the three main species affecting humans, Schistosoma haematobium is the most common, and is the leading cause of urogenital schistosomiasis. S . haematobium infection can cause different urogential clinical complications, particularly in the bladder, and furthermore, this parasite has been strongly linked with squamous cell carcinoma. A comprehensive analysis of the molecular composition of its different proteomes will contribute to developing new tools against this devastating disease. By combining a comprehensive protein fractionation approach consisting of OFFGEL electrophoresis with high-throughput mass spectrometry, we have performed the first in-depth characterisation of the different discrete proteomes of S . haematobium that are predicted to interact with human host tissues, including the secreted and tegumental proteomes of adult flukes and secreted and soluble egg proteomes. A total of 662, 239, 210 and 138 proteins were found in the adult tegument, adult secreted, soluble egg and secreted egg proteomes, respectively. In addition, we probed these distinct proteomes with urine to assess urinary antibody responses from naturally infected human subjects with different infection intensities, and identified adult fluke secreted and tegument extracts as being the best predictors of infection. We provide a comprehensive dataset of proteins from the adult and egg stages of S . haematobium and highlight their utility as diagnostic markers of infection intensity for the development of novel tools to control this important neglected tropical disease. Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Of the main three species affecting humans, Schistosoma haematobium is the most common, and is the leading cause of urogenital schistosomiasis. This parasite can cause a range of clinical complications associated with bladder pathogenesis, including squamous cell carcinoma as well as genital malignancy in women. Herein, we have performed the first comprehensive characterisation of the proteins implicated in host-parasite interactions (secreted and surface proteins from the adult flukes and secreted and soluble egg proteins) in order to advance our understanding of the parasite’s biology. Furthermore, we have characterised the different antibody responses in urine from infected human subjects from an endemic area presenting different infection intensities. The data obtained in this study can be used as a first step towards the development of novel tools for the control of urogenital schistosomiasis.
Publisher: Biology Centre, AS CR
Date: 06-2007
DOI: 10.14411/FP.2007.012
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Francisca Mutapi.