Haemoflagellate intro Flashcards
What are haemoflagellate parasites?
Flagellated protozoa living in blood or tissues
Possess kinetoplast or kDNA (inside parasite mitochondrion)
Also referred to as kinetoplastid parasites because of kDNA
Transmitted by because of kDNA
Transmitted by insect vectors
Two main genera; Trypanosoma and Leishmania
Causative agents of important human and animal disease
What are the main genera of Haemoflagellate parasites?
Trypanosoma and Leishmania
What diseases are caused by haemoflagellates
Chagas disease - Trypanosoma cruzi
Sleeping sickness and animal trypanosomiasis - Trypanosoma brucei-
leishmaniasis - Leishmania spp
What are the issues with haemoflagellate control and treatment
No vaccine and drugs have high levels of toxicity
What are the main haemoflagellate vectors
T. cruzi - Reduviid bug
T. brucei - Tsetse fly
Leishmania spp - Sandfly
Morphology of haemoflagellate parasites
mammalian forms
trypomastigote - T. brucei and T. cruzi
amastigote - Leishmania spp and T cruzi
insect (vector) forms
promastigote - Leishmania
epimastigote - T brucei and T cruzi
What parasite is a trypomastigote
T brucei
T cruzi
What parasite is an amastigote
Leishmania
T. cruzi
What parasite is a promastigote
Leishmania
What parasite is an epimastigote
T. brucei
T. cruzi
What are the mammalian parasite forms
Trypomastigote and Amastigote
What are the vector forms
Promastigote and epimastigote
What is the kDNA of haemoflagellate parasites
kDNA is the mitochondrial DNA of kinetoplastid organisms
kDNA used for diagnostics and for identifying parasite species
