Objective: The role of mood disorders in cancer onset is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between mood disorder and incident cancer in a population-based sample of women. Methods: Data were derived from women aged 28-94 years participating in the Geelong Osteoporosis Study. Mood disorder was identified via Clinical Interview (SCID-I/NP). Cancer data was obtained following linkage with the Victorian Cancer Registry. Demographic and lifestyle factors were self-reported. Nested case-control and retrospective study designs were utilized. Results: In the case-control study (n=807), mood disorder was documented for 18 of the 75 (9.3%) cancer cases and among 288 controls (24.0% vs. 39.3%, p = 0.009). Prior exposure to mood disorder was associated with reduced cancer incidence (OR 0.49, 95%CI 0.28-0.84); this was sustained following adjustment for confounders (ORadj 0.52, 95%CI 0.30-0.90). In the retrospective cohort study (n=655), among 154 women with a history of mood disorder at baseline, 13 (8.5%) developed incident cancer during follow-up, whereas among 501 women with no history of mood disorder, 54 (10.8%) developed incident cancer. Exposure to mood disorder was not associated with incident cancer over the follow-up period (HR 0.58, 95%CI 0.31-1.08, p = 0.09). Conclusion: Mood disorder was associated with reduced odds of cancer onset. However, this finding was not supported in the retrospective cohort study. Larger studies able to investigate specific cancers and mood disorders as well as underlying mechanisms in both men and women are warranted.

Leishmania (Sauroleishmania) tarentolae has biotechnological potential for use as live vaccine against visceral leishmaniasis and as a system for the over expression of eukaryotic proteins that possess accurate post-translational modifications. For both purposes, new systems for protein expression in this non-pathogenic protozoan are necessary. The ribosomal RNA promoter proved to be a stronger transcription driver since its use yielded increased levels of recombinant protein in organisms of both genera Trypanosoma or Leishmania. We have evaluated heterologous expression systems using vectors with two different polypyrimidine tracts in the splice acceptor site by measuring a reporter gene transcribed from L. tarentolae RNA polymerase I promoter. Our data indicate that the efficiency of chloramphenicol acetyl transferase expression changed drastically with homologous or heterologous sequences, depending on the polypyrimidine tract used in the construct and differences in size and/or distance from the AG dinucleotide. In relation to the promoter sequence the reporter expression was higher in heterologous lizard-infecting species than in the homologous L. tarentolae or in the mammalian-infecting L. (Leishmania) amazonensis.

To establish the relationships of the lizard- and mammal-infecting Leishmania, we characterized the intergenic spacer region of ribosomal RNA genes from L. tarentolae and L. hoogstraali. The organization of these regions is similar to those of other eukaryotes. The intergenic spacer region was approximately 4 kb in L. tarentolae and 5.5 kb in L. hoogstraali. The size difference was due to a greater number of 63-bp repetitive elements in the latter species. This region also contained another element, repeated twice, that had an inverted octanucleotide with the potential to form a stem-loop structure that could be involved in transcription termination or processing events. The ribosomal RNA gene localization showed a distinct pattern with one chromosomal band (2.2 Mb) for L. tarentolae and two (1.5 and 1.3 Mb) for L. hoogstraali. The study also showed sequence differences in the external transcribed region that could be used to distinguish lizard Leishmania from the mammalian Leishmania. The intergenic spacer region structure features found among Leishmania species indicated that lizard and mammalian Leishmania are closely related and support the inclusion of lizard-infecting species into the subgenus Sauroleishmania proposed by Saf'janova in 1982.

Trypanosoma rangeli is a hemoflagelate parasite that infects domestic and sylvatic animals, as well as man, in Central and South America. T. rangeli has an overlapping distribution with T. cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease, sharing several animal reservoirs and triatomine vectors. We have isolated T. rangeli strains in the State of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, which dramatically increased the distribution area of this parasite. This brief review summarizes several studies comparing T. rangeli strains isolated in Santa Catarina with others isolated in Colombia, Honduras and Venezuela. The different methods used include indirect immunofluorescence and western blot assays, lectin agglutination, isoenzyme electrophoresis and random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis, triatomine susceptibility, in vitro cell infection assays, and mini-exon gene analysis.

The use of molecular tools to detect and type Leishmania species in humans, reservoirs or sandflies has been pursued using different approaches. The polymerase chain reaction provided sensitivity to case this task, since the use of hybridization procedures alone employing specifics probes is hampered due to the low detection limit. In this report, we describe the different molecular targets used in our laboratory, aiming at the detection and specific typing of these protozoa. Different kits based on hybridization assays and PCR amplification using kinetoplast and nuclear targets are described and the results obtained from their use are reported.