TY - JOUR
T1 - Detection of coccidioidal antibodies in serum of a small rodent community in Baja California, Mexico
AU - Catalán-Dibene, Jovani
AU - Johnson, Suzanne M.
AU - Eaton, Ricardo
AU - Romero-Olivares, Adriana L.
AU - Baptista-Rosas, Raúl C.
AU - Pappagianis, Demosthenes
AU - Riquelme, Meritxell
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Council on Science and Technology (CONACyT) and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) of Mexico through the CONACyT-SEMARNAT grant S0010-FONSEC SEMARNAT 23479. We thank R. Muñiz and A. Arreola from the School of Health Sciences at the Autonomous University of Baja California for providing their BSL-3 facilities and for technical assistance, R. V. Romero-Guluarte for field assistance, and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) of Mexico for studentship and travel grants No. 329416/234567 to J. Catalan-Dibene. We are grateful to B. M. Barker from The Translational Genomics Research Institute, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, for reading the manuscript carefully and providing helpful suggestions.
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) represents a serious threat to inhabitants of endemic areas of North America. Despite successful clinical isolations of the fungal etiological agent, Coccidioides spp., the screening of environmental samples has had low effectiveness, mainly because of the poor characterization of Coccidioides ecological niche. We explored Valle de las Palmas, Baja California, Mexico, a highly endemic area near the U.S.-Mexico border, where we previously detected Coccidioides via culture-independent molecular methods. By testing the serum from 40-trapped rodents with ELISA, we detected antibodies against Coccidioides in two species: Peromyscus maniculatus and Neotoma lepida. This study comprises the first report of wild rodent serum tested for coccidioidal antibodies, and sets the basis to analyze this pathogen in its natural environment and explore its potential ecological niche.
AB - Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) represents a serious threat to inhabitants of endemic areas of North America. Despite successful clinical isolations of the fungal etiological agent, Coccidioides spp., the screening of environmental samples has had low effectiveness, mainly because of the poor characterization of Coccidioides ecological niche. We explored Valle de las Palmas, Baja California, Mexico, a highly endemic area near the U.S.-Mexico border, where we previously detected Coccidioides via culture-independent molecular methods. By testing the serum from 40-trapped rodents with ELISA, we detected antibodies against Coccidioides in two species: Peromyscus maniculatus and Neotoma lepida. This study comprises the first report of wild rodent serum tested for coccidioidal antibodies, and sets the basis to analyze this pathogen in its natural environment and explore its potential ecological niche.
KW - Coccidioidomycosis
KW - ELISA
KW - Ecological niche
KW - ITS
KW - Rodents
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84896695532
U2 - 10.1016/j.funbio.2014.01.006
DO - 10.1016/j.funbio.2014.01.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 24607357
AN - SCOPUS:84896695532
SN - 1878-6146
VL - 118
SP - 330
EP - 339
JO - Fungal Biology
JF - Fungal Biology
IS - 3
ER -