minoucat
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5175
posted
So far, primaquine has been enormously helpful in bringing the hubby's recalcitrant babesia under control.
BUT primaquine was developed to treat the tissue form of one of the malarias (plasmodium). Theoretically, babesia does not have a tissue form, although research indicates it has a form that exists outside of the erythrocytes, either in the lymphocytes or by encapsulating and attaching to the walls of the blood vessel.
I dunno what it all means, except that not only is the malaria model of babesia only a very rough approximation, apparently the babesia model might be similarly misguided, at least as far as B microti and (presumably)the B WA-1 strain are concerned.
Anyway, here's a new and recent view:
Vet Parasitol. 2006 Feb 27; [Epub ahead of print]
Uilenberg G.
"A Surgente", Route du Port, 20130 Cargese (Corse), France.
The history of the genus Babesia is briefly outlined. The classical differences with the main other genus of non-pigment-forming hemoparasites, Theileria, are the absence of extra-erythrocytic multiplication (schizogony) in Babesia and the cycle in the vector tick, which includes transovarial transmission in Babesia but only transstadial transmission in Theileria. Also, the multiplication in the red cell of Babesia, by budding, most often results in two daughter cells (merozoites), while that of Theileria gives four merozoites, often as a Maltese cross.
In particular this means that what is still commonly called Babesia microti is not a Babesia and that it would be just as logical to speak of human theileriosis as of babesiosis. The small piroplasm of horses, long known as Babesia equi, is already commonly designated as Theileria equi. However, on molecular grounds, it may be necessary to create a new genus for these parasites. The Babesia species of domestic animals are briefly discussed and presented in a table. Pub Med
Also:
First, there is no exoerythrocytic stage in its development as there is in the case of Plasmodium, although this is now open to question. Mehlhorn and Schein (38) have suggested that B. microti and B. equi initially invade lymphocytes prior to invading erythrocytes, similar to the development of Theileria spp. Subsequently, Mehlhorn and Schein have shown that B. equi indeed initially invades lymphocytes, serving as the basis for their reclassification of B. equi as T. equi (39).
posted
Thanks, useful info. It looks like the only people very interested in babesia are the vets.
The NIH has very little interest, despite the fact that this is in the blood supply. Here is all they list in babesia research in all of the NIH for 2006:
Total for 5 Grants Retrieved: $398,633 Found 5 unique Principal Investigators
Rank Grant Principal Investigator (PI) Project Title
1 5K08AI051391-03 LEROITH, TANYA The Role of Babesia bovis MSA-1 in Erythrocyte Invasion
* $319,682 | 2006 | Allred, David R | UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA | GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA | IBC
3 5K08AI060630-03 BERENS, SHAWN Generation of babesial surface protein diversity Total: $78,951
* $78,951 | 2006 | Berens, Shawn J | WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY | PULLMAN, WASHINGTON | IBC
4 5R01AG019781-04 WORTIS, HENRY Babesiosis as a model of age-related immunosenescence
5 5R01AI049424-04 MUNDERLOH, ULRIKE Development of Paratransgenic Ticks for Disease Control
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Look at #4. This guy is saying people who get babesia symptoms are old. Hmmm, is this any better than saying the only ones affected are spleen-less?
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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valymemom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7076
posted
Someone asked before: Where do the two of you find this excellent information?
It is all so complicated. Why isn't some scientist/researcher out there interested in this????
Posts: 1240 | From Centreville,VA | Registered: Mar 2005
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Can search here for anything that interests you, multiple years.
This website was made available by a public-spirited group after the NIH decided to stop listing the $$ amounts for its grants. Seems the taxpayers have no right to know how much of their money is being spent to research their diseases.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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Thanks so much for sharing this. Was trying to research this very thing myself last night and couldn't get anywhere.
Hubby is having a much rougher time treating for babs this time round and I just couldn't seem to make sense of things. The way he is herxing it sure seems like the babs must have been hiding out in the tissues.
Hubby is about ready to throw in the towel after only 3 days of Quinine/Clindamyacin. Last time he saw only tremendous improvement in symptomatology without any herx symptoms.
Bea Seibert
P.S. I can just see it now. Hundreds and thousands of Lyme patients trying to explain to their PCP's -- I was treated for babesia which is not really babesia at all but is ....
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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