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Stefania Varani

Associate Professor

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences

Academic discipline: MED/07 Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology

Research

Keywords: Leishmania medical parasitology diagnostic methods drug discovery

 1) Evaluation of new diagnostic methods for the identification of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis;

2) Analysis of new natural-like compounds active against Leishmania;

3) Emerging blood protozoa in the immunocompromised patient: screening, diagnosis, monitoring and clinical management;

4) Prevalence studies for asymptomatic Leishmania infections and validation of a test combination. 

5) Molecular epidemiology studies on Leishmania strains circulating in the Emilia-Romagna region in a One-Health perspective (human-animal reservoir-sand fly).

1) Evaluation of new diagnostic methods for the identification of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis. Different serological tests will be compared and molecular methods will be developed for the identification of Leishmania. Development of quantitative PCR for Leishmania DNA in blood.

2) Analysis of new natural-like compounds active towards Leishmania. New natural-like compounds (including chalcones, curcumin and artemisinin derivatives) will be tested on cultures of promastigotes and amastigotes of different Leishmania species to evaluate their leishmanicidal activity. For the compounds showing good antileishmanial activity, the mechanism of action will be evaluated.

3) Emerging blood protozoa in the immunocompromised patient: screening, diagnosis, monitoring and clinical management. Multicenter study for the screening and identification of systemic protozoan infections, with focus on Leishmania, in immunocompromised patients, such as HIV+, transplanted patients and patients with immune-mediated diseases. The cohort of individuals that will be positive for blood protozoa will be monitored by molecular tests. Finally, several biomarkers will be evaluated to predict the evolution of Leishmania infection in immunocompromised patients.

4) Prevalence studies of asymptomatic Leishmania infection and validation of methods for identifying such infections. Studies carried out in localized areas of the province of Bologna exhibiting high parasite  circulationindicate a high prevalence of asymptomatic Leishmania infection. Immunological methods (including evaluation of antibodies and specific cell-mediated immunity) and molecular methods have been developed and used in combination to properly  identify asymptomatic  infections caused by Leishmania.

5) Studies of molecular epidemiology on Leishmania strains circulating in the Emilia-Romagna region  in a One-Health perspective (human-animal reservoir-sand fly). Leishmania strains isolated from patients, from different mammals and from sand flies circulating in the Emilia-Romagna region will be typed by Multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT). Molecular surveillance also includes diagnosis of species using molecular methods (such as amplification and sequencing of the hsp70 and ITS-1 genes) in collaboration with Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna. 

 

 

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