Heterophagy (literally meaning “other eat”) is the process of a cell consuming material from
its environment. Heterophagy involves vesicular uptake and thus is distinct from cellular …

Parasitic protists cause some of the most well-known human and animal diseases such as
malaria, toxoplasmosis, amoebic meningitis, sleeping sickness, leishmaniosis, and diarrheal …

Background Autophagy has a crucial role in the defense against parasites. The interplay
existing between host autophagy and parasites has varied outcomes due to the kind of host …

Eukaryotic cells can degrade their own components, cytosolic proteins and organelles,
using dedicated hydrolases contained within the acidic interior of their lysosomes. This …

The protozoan parasites are evolutionarily divergent, unicellular eukaryotic pathogens
representing one of the essential sources of parasitic diseases. These parasites significantly …

Pathogenic protists are a group of organisms responsible for causing a variety of human
diseases including malaria, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, and …

Functional characterization of autophagy has only started recently in medically important
parasitic protists. It appears both from bioinformatic searches and experimental data that …

After invading the host organism, a battle occurs between the parasitic protists and the host's
immune system, the result of which determines not only whether and how well the host …

Human intestinal protozoal infections are found worldwide. Protozoa produce diarrhoeal
disease by infecting the small or large intestine, or both. Amoebiasis is an important cause of …

Autophagy is the degradative process by which eukaryotic cells digest their own
components using acid hydrolases within the lysosome. Originally thought to function almost …