Cecilia Casaravilla

Cecilia Casaravilla
Universidad de la República de Uruguay | UdelaR · Cátedra de Inmunología, Facultad de Química/Ciencias

PhD

About

40
Publications
4,470
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982
Citations
Additional affiliations
January 2005 - December 2012
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la Republica de Uruguay
Position
  • Universidad de la Republica de Uruguay

Publications

Publications (40)
Article
Cystic echinococcosis is caused by the tissue‐dwelling larva (hydatid) of Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato . A salient feature is that this larva is protected by the acellular laminated layer (LL). As the parasite grows, the LL sheds abundant particles that can accumulate in the parasite's vicinity. The potential of LL particles to induce inflamm...
Preprint
Cystic echinococcosis is caused by the tissue-dwelling larva (hydatid) of Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato . A salient feature is this larva is being protected by the acellular laminated layer (LL), made up of mucins and calcium inositol hexakisphosphate (Ins P ). As the parasite grows, the LL sheds abundant particles that can accumulate in the p...
Article
Full-text available
The larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus causes the chronic infection known as cystic echinococcosis, deploying strong inhibitory mechanisms on host immune responses. Using experimental intraperitoneal infection in C57BL/6 mice, we carried out an in-depth analysis of the local changes in macrophage populations associated with chronic infection....
Article
Full-text available
Cystic echinococcosis is caused by the larval stages (hydatids) of cestode parasites belonging to the species cluster Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato, with E. granulosus sensu stricto being the main infecting species. Hydatids are bladderlike structures that attain large sizes within various internal organs of livestock ungulates and humans. Hyd...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cystic echinococcosis is caused by the larval stages (hydatids) of cestode parasites belonging to the species cluster Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato . Hydatids are bladder-like structures that attain large sizes within various internal organs of livestock ungulates and humans. Hydatids are protected by the massive acellular laminated layer (LL)...
Article
Full-text available
The larval stages of the cestode parasites belonging to the genus Echinococcus grow within internal organs of humans and a range of animal species. The resulting diseases, collectively termed echinococcoses, include major neglected tropical diseases of humans and livestock. Echinococcus larvae are outwardly protected by the laminated layer (LL), an...
Article
Full-text available
The interplay of environmental, social, and behavioral factors influencing human circadian phase in ecological conditions remains elusive. The Uruguayan national dance school END-SODRE operating in two shifts (morning: 8:30-12:30 and night: 20:00-24:00) allowed us to evaluate how social demands, chronotype, environmental light, physical activity, a...
Article
Full-text available
The genus Echinococcus of cestode parasites includes important pathogens of humans and livestock animals. Transcriptomic and genomic studies on E. granulosus and E. multilocularis uncovered striking expansion of monodomain Kunitz proteins. This expansion is accompanied by the specialization of some family members away from the ancestral protease in...
Article
Full-text available
The interaction of dendritic cells and macrophages with a variety of rigid non-cellular particles triggers activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and consequent secretion of IL-1β. Non-cellular particles can also be generated in the context of helminth infection, as these large pathogens often shed their outermost structures during growth and/or moul...
Article
Full-text available
The larval stage of the cestode Echinococcus granulosus causes cystic echinococcosis in humans and livestock. This larva is protected by the mm-thick, mucin-based laminated layer (LL), from which materials have to be shed to allow parasite growth. We previously reported that dendritic cells (DCs) respond to microscopic pieces of the mucin gel of th...
Article
Full-text available
Dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) is the most reliable measure of human central circadian timing. Its modulation by light exposure and chronotype has been scarcely approached. We evaluated the impact of light changes on the interaction between melatonin, sleep, and chronotype in university students (n = 12) between the Antarctic summer (10 days) and...
Article
Full-text available
Commercially available saponins are extracted from Quillaja saponaria barks, being Quil A® the most widely used. Nanoparticulate immunostimulating complexes (ISCOMs or ISCOMATRIX) formulated with these, are able to stimulate strong humoral and cellular immune responses. Recently, we formulated novel ISCOMs replacing QuilA® by QB-90 (IQB-90), a Quil...
Article
Granulomas are responses to persistent nonliving bodies or pathogens, centrally featuring specialized macrophage forms called epithelioid and multinucleated giant cells. The larval stages of the cestode parasites of the taeniidae family (Taenia, Echinococcus) develop for years in fixed tissue sites in mammals. In consequence, they are targets of gr...
Article
Full-text available
Proliferation of macrophages is a hallmark of inflammation in many type 2 settings including helminth infections. The cellular expansion is driven by the type 2 cytokine interleukin-4 (IL-4), as well as by M-CSF, which also controls homeostatic levels of tissue resident macrophages. Cystic echinococcosis, caused by the tissue-dwelling larval stage...
Article
Full-text available
The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is known to down-regulate inflammatory cytokine responses in dendritic cells and macrophages stimulated with TLR agonists. This is due to class I PI3Ks causing the activation of Akt, which in turn inactivates GSK3, a kinase that promotes the transcription of IL-12 and represses that of anti-inflammat...
Data
Suplementary Fig. 1. PI3K-Akt-GSK3 sub-pathway. Simplified representation of PI3K Akt/GSK3 “sub-pathway”. PI3K class I can be activated by various stimuli, including TLR agonists. Activated PI3K class I catalyses the phosphorylation of PI(4,5) P2 to form PI(3,4,5)P3 at the plasma membrane. PI(3,4,5) P3 recruits Akt to the plasma membrane, where it...
Article
Cystic echinococcosis is the infection by the larvae of cestode parasites belonging to the Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato species complex. Local host responses are strikingly subdued in relation to the size and persistence of these larvae, which develop within mammalian organs as "hydatid cysts" measuring up to tens of cm in diameter. In a cont...
Article
Full-text available
The laminated layer is the unique mucin-based extracellular matrix that protects Echinococcus larvae, and thus to an important extent, shapes host-parasite relationships in the larval echinococcoses. In 2011, we published twin reviews summarizing what was known about this structure. Since then, important advances have been made. Complete genomes an...
Article
Full-text available
The larval stage of the cestode parasite Echinococcus granulosus causes hydatid disease in humans and livestock. This infection is characterized by the growth, in internal organ parenchymae, of fluid-filled structures (hydatids) that elicit surprisingly little inflammation in spite of their massive size and persistence. Hydatids are protected by a...
Article
Full-text available
Infection by larval Echinococcus granulosus is usually characterized by tight inflammatory control. However, various degrees of chronic granulomatous inflammation are also observed, reaching a high point in infection of cattle by the most prevalent parasite strain worldwide, which is not well adapted to this host species. In this context, epithelio...
Article
Echinococcus larvae are protected by a massive carbohydrate-rich acellular structure, called the laminated layer. In spite of being widely considered the crucial element of these host-parasite interfaces, the laminated layer has been historically poorly understood. In fact, it is still often called 'chitinous', 'hyaline' or 'cuticular' layer, or sa...
Article
The laminated layer (LL) is the massive carbohydrate-rich structure that protects Echinococcus larvae, which cause cystic echinococcosis (hydatid disease) and alveolar echinococcosis. Increased understanding of the biochemistry of the LL is allowing a more informed analysis of its immunology. The LL not only protects the parasite against host attac...
Article
Full-text available
The larvae of the cestodes belonging to the genus Echinococcus are outwardly protected by the laminated layer (LL), a crucial but poorly understood carbohydrate-rich acellular structure. Carbohydrate structural data strongly suggest that the main components of the LL are mucins. The most massive LL in the genus is featured by E. granulosus, agent o...
Article
The cestodes constitute important but understudied human and veterinary parasites. Their surfaces are rich in carbohydrates, on which very little structural information is available. The tissue-dwelling larva (hydatid cyst) of the cestode Echinococcus granulosus is outwardly protected by a massive layer of carbohydrate-rich extracellular matrix, te...
Article
Expression of Tk antigen, a truncated carbohydrate antigen, was examined in helmith parasites. Using the monoclonal antibody LM389, this antigen was detected in extracts from Taenia hydatigena, Mesocestoides vogae (syn corti), and Taenia crassiceps. No reactivity was observed in Thysanosoma spp., Dipylidium caninum, Fasciola hepatica, and Nyppostro...
Article
The abundant metabolite myo-inositol hexakisphosphate (InsP6) can form vesicular deposits with cations, a widespread phenomenon in plants also found in the cestode parasite, Echinococcus granulosus. In this organism, the deposits are exocytosed, accumulating in a host-exposed sheath of extracellular matrix termed the laminated layer. The formation...
Article
Two IgM murine monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), EgC1 and EgC3, were produced against the excretory/secretory (E/S) products of Echinococcus granulosus adult worms. Immunoblotting revealed that both predominantly recognized a 50 kDa antigen in the somatic extract and an 85 kDa component in the E/S products. Immunolocalization showed that both MAbs reac...
Article
The ubiquitous intracellular molecule myo-inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) is present extracellularly in the hydatid cyst wall (HCW) of the parasitic cestode Echinococcus granulosus. This study shows that extracellular IP6 is present as its solid calcium salt, in the form of deposits that are observed, at the ultrastructural level, as naturally elec...
Article
Full-text available
This article focuses on the initiation pathway of mucin-type O-glycosylation in helminth parasites. The presence of the GalNAc-O-Ser/Thr structure, also known as Tn antigen, a truncated determinant related to aberrant glycosylation in mammal cells, and the activity of the UDP-GalNAc:polypeptide N-acetyl-galactosaminyltransferase (ppGaNTase), the en...
Article
We recently standardised Mesocestoides vogae (syn. corti) tetrathyridia cultures in the presence of sodium taurocholate. Parasite clustering and segmentation were observed as taurocholate-dependent effects in biphasic and monophasic media, respectively, and both were inhibited by a specific minimum inhibitory concentration (m.i.c.) of the cestocida...
Article
Full-text available
The identification of lectin-binding structures in adult worms of Echinococcus granulosus was carried out by lectin fluorescence; the distribution of carbohydrates in parasite glycoconjugates was also studied by lectin blotting. The lectins with the most ample recognition pattern were ConA, WGA, and PNA. ConA showed widespread reactivity in tegumen...
Article
Simple mucin-type cancer-associated O-glycan structures, such as the Tn antigen (GalNAc-O-Ser/Thr), are expressed by certain helminth parasites. These antigens are involved in several types of receptor-ligand interactions, and they are potential targets for immunotherapy. The aim of this work was to study the initiation pathway of mucin-type O-glyc...
Article
In the present work we demonstrate that the cancer-associated O-glycosylated Tn antigen (GalNAc-O-Ser/Thr) is expressed by the cestode Echinococcus granulosus. This antigen was detected in both larval and adult worm extracts, with the highest specific activity observed in the adult excretion/secretion preparation. Histochemical analysis showed that...

Questions

Question (1)
Question
I've found several papers saying that mediastinal and parathymic lymph nodes (LN) are the main LN draining the peritoneal cavity (after lymph goes through diaphragm lymphatic lacunae). But then I found a paper (Parungo et al, 2007) showing that the abdominal LN, in particular the mesenteric ones, are responsible for draining the cavity. Can anyone shed some light on this topic?
Thanks!

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