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Mexico City.- Advances in microscopy allow us to model and recreate the internal structures of parasites with their biological mechanisms with three-dimensional images, which will help to combat them.
Wanderley de Souza, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, reported on the above when he proposed the Miguel Alemán pulpit as part of the institutional symposium of the Research Center and the University of Rio de Janeiro. advanced studies (Cinvestav).
The academic said that Latin American researchers, especially Brazilians, Mexicans and Colombians "have an obligation to study the infectious and parasitic agents that affect the populations of our countries," said the University. Latin America, Africa and Asia ".
He said that 20 years ago, microscopy barely showed the general organization of cells with a punctual view in two-dimensional images, but that it was not possible to conduct research.
However, the director of the Brazilian Agency for Financing Research and Innovation also pointed out that there are currently advanced techniques to observe the organization of the cell inside.
For example, he spoke about the use of computed tomography, which in medicine allows a significant advance in diagnostic imaging. Thanks to its adaptation to the electron microscope, hundreds of images are obtained by fluorescence microscopy with a resolution of 20 to 30 nanometers reconstruction in three dimensions.
The Brazilian scientist explained that infectious diseases are a health problem at the international level.
For example, he explained that malaria could infect 3.2 billion people in 95 countries, causing 214 million cases in 2015 and 438,000 deaths; or toxoplasmosis that infects 2.5 million people; Other important protozoa are chagas, leishmaniasis, amoebiasis, gardiasis and trichomoniasis.
He noted that current drugs to fight infectious diseases offer partial protection.
In the case of Chagas, he said, treatments reach an efficiency of 70%, hence the importance of continuing to study and try to better understand the biology of protozoa.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary to use new approaches and new tools allowing to observe in detail the interior of infectious agents, in their different cellular structures, organelles, cytoskeletons, microtubules, flagellae , interactions and biological processes.
During its presentation, reported by Cinvestav in a statement, the progress of some studies using state-of-the-art microscopy techniques was presented: protozoan flagellum analysis, particularly of the trypanosomatid family; subpecular microtubules, found in trypanosomateids and in members of the Aicomplexa group.
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