The effect of iron on Trichomonas vaginalis TvCP2: a cysteine proteinase found in vaginal secretions of trichomoniasis patients.

Trichomonas vaginalis (Tv) induces host cell damage through cysteine proteinases (CPs) modulated by iron. An immunoproteomic analysis showed that trichomoniasis patient sera recognize various CPs, also some of them are present in vaginal washes (VWs). Thus, the goal of this work was to determine whether TvCP2 is expressed during infection and to assess the effect of iron on TvCP2 expression, localization and contribution to in vitro cellular damage. Western-blotting (WB) assays using TvCP2r and vaginitis patient serum samples showed that 6/9 Tv (+) but none of the Tv (-) patient sera recognized TvCP2r. WB using an anti-TvCP2r antibody and VWs from the same patients showed that in all of the Tv (+) but none of the Tv (-) VWs, the anti-TvCP2r antibody detected a 27 kDa protein band that corresponded to the mature TvCP2, which was confirmed by mass spectrometry analysis. Iron decreased the amount of TvCP2 mRNA and the protein localized on the parasite surface and cytoplasmic vesicles concomitant with the cytotoxic effect of TvCP2 on HeLa cells. Parasites pretreated with the anti-TvCP2r antibody also showed reduced levels of cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction in HeLa cell monolayers. In conclusion, these results show that TvCP2 is expressed during trichomonal infection and plays an important role in the in vitro HeLa cell cytotoxic damage under iron-restricted conditions.

Filamentous fungi from aids patient secretions and from the environmental air in hospital

Mediante la toma de muestras de secreciones orofaringeas, nasales y del oído externo de 50 pacientes con sindrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida (SIDA-AIDS) y del aire de las salas de tratamiento de los mismos, se obtuvieron 238 muestras: 87 de las secreciones y 151 del aire. Se aislaron 29 spp. de hongos filamentosos de los especímenes clínicos y 38 del aire. En las secreciones de los pacientes, el grupo forma: mycelia sterilia, y fusarium oxysporum, f. lateritium, aspergillus parasiticus, fueron los hyphomycetes más representativos y los géneros aspergillus y fusarium constituyeron el 47 porciento de los aislamientos en proporciones semejantes. En el ambiente hospitalario, el grupo forma mycelia sterilia y las especies c. sphaerospermum, aspergillus sydowii y c. cladosporioides fueron los hyphomycetes más representativos y los géneros aspergillus y penicillium constituyeron el 47,7 porciento de los aislamientos. Los taxa más comunes que se presentaron al mismo tiempo en los pacientes como en su ambiente fueron: mycelia sterilia, c. sphaerospermum, a. sydowii, a. restrictus y p. implicatum