Plasmodium ovale It is a species of unicellular protist that constitutes one of the best known parasites in man, causing a disease that has always wreaked havoc on humanity, malaria.
It was the last of the malaria-causing parasites to be described. This was in the year 1922 by Stephens, who observed it years earlier in the blood of an East African patient. What caught his attention was the oval shape that erythrocytes take, which is why he decided to name it Plasmodium ovale.
The Plasmodium ovale is perhaps the least dangerous of the parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Even so, it is capable of generating the development of malaria in healthy individuals, although it is less virulent than the other species of Plasmodium.
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Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Protista
Edge: Apicomplexa
Class: Aconoidasida
Order: Haemosporida
Family: Plasmodiidae
Gender: Plasmodium
Species: Plasmodium ovale
The Plasmodium ovale It has several stages when it is in the bloodstream. Each stadium has its own characteristics:
The young has a pigment that forms small dark brown masses. Likewise, it is shaped like a ring that occupies approximately one third of the size of the red blood cell. The cytoplasm forms a circle around the vacuole.
The mature trophozoite is compact, generally does not present a vacuole and has pigments like the young trophozoite..
They occupy more than half of the cytoplasm of the erythrocyte. The pigment is concentrated in a mass.
Two types of gametocytes occur: macromgametocyte and microgametocyte..
They have condensed chromatin. It can be oval or rounded. It has a light brown pigment diffused throughout the cytoplasm. This is homogeneous.
Maintains the shape of the macrogametocyte. The cytoplasm is a colorless or pale halo. The pigment is distributed in small granules. Has dispersed chromatin.
The Plasmodium ovale it is a protozoan that is responsible for a small percentage of malaria cases in the world.
It is a unicellular eukaryotic organism, which implies that they are made up of a single cell and that within it there is a cell nucleus, in which nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) are contained.
It is parasitic in life, which means that in order to develop fully, it necessarily needs to be within the cells of a host. In this case, the host can be humans or some other vertebrate..
Similarly, they require a vector agent, within which the sexual phase of their cycle occurs. The vector of Plasmodium ovale is the female of the genus Anopheles, a type of mosquito.
When it comes to habitat, it is limited. The species Plasmodium ovale it is found only in West Africa and some Asian countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. It is also common in Papua New Guinea.
Plasmodium ovale it is an organism whose cells lack flagella, so their mobility is not conditioned by them.
The life cycle of Plasmodium ovale is similar to that of the other species of the genus Plasmodium. One part occurs within the female mosquito Anopheles and the other part occurs inside the body of some invertebrate, the most common being the human being.
The phase that occurs within the mosquito is known as sporogonic and the one that occurs within the human being, schizogonic.
The bite of the human being by the female of the genus can be taken as the starting point of the life cycle Anopheles. At the time of the bite, the form of the parasite known as sporocoite is inoculated into the human bloodstream..
These forms are transported through the bloodstream to the liver, an organ of the human body in which the next stage of the cycle takes place..
In the liver, the sporocytes enter the hepatocytes (liver cells). Within these they undergo a series of transformations, until reaching a degree of maturation in which they become known as schizonts..
Likewise, within the liver cells each schizont undergoes asexual reproduction, in which a form of the parasite called merozoite is generated. An average of between ten thousand and twenty-five thousand merozoites are generated within each cell..
Eventually, due to the weakening of their cellular machinery and their typical structures, hepatocytes undergo cell lysis, that is, they are destroyed, releasing all the merozoites that had formed into the blood..
The primary goal of merozoites is to enter, infect, and colonize red blood cells. The reason why this form of the parasite has a predilection for erythrocytes over other blood cells is that they feed on hemoglobin.
This protein is found exclusively within red blood cells and is responsible for transporting oxygen to all tissues.
Within erythrocytes, the merozoite undergoes a maturation process until it becomes a trophozoite. Over time (about 3 days approximately), the deterioration of the erythrocyte is total, breaking its membrane, releasing merozoites into the blood together with the internal cellular content.
Two things can happen here: the first one is that the released merozoites are capable of infecting other red blood cells, continuing with the production of trophozoites..
The second thing that can happen is that merozoites can undergo a transformation into sex cells: microgametocytes (male) and macrogametocytes (female).
These constitute the infectious form of the female Anopheles, which becomes infected when it bites a person infected with malaria.
Now, within the female occurs another phase of the life cycle of the Plasmodium ovale. The gametocytes (female and male) go to the intestine of the mosquito, in which fertilization occurs. As a result of this, a zygote is generated that is known by the name of ooquineto.
It undergoes a transformation into a structure known as an oocyst. From this, the sporocytes originate, which move towards the salivary glands of the mosquito, from where they are inoculated in humans, thus concluding the life cycle.
Parasites of the genus Plasmodium They are responsible for causing the disease known as malaria or malaria in humans. Of all pathogenic species, the Plasmodium ovale It is one of the less common and the disease caused by it is not as deadly as if it is caused by Plasmodium falciparum.
Malaria is transmitted through the bite of the female mosquito of the genus Anopheles, which can load the sporocytes in their salivary glands, in such a way that when biting a healthy person, they would be inoculating them.
Malaria is a disease that is highly widespread throughout the world, especially in developing countries. Among the areas most affected by this pathology are the African continent (specifically the sub-Saharan region), Asia and Latin America.
The main risk groups for this disease include:
The incubation period is the time it takes for the disease to physically manifest itself from the moment the parasite enters the bloodstream..
In the case of Plasmodium ovale, the incubation period is between 12 to 18 days. Of course, there are factors that determine how quickly the symptoms will manifest, being the conditions of the host's immune system the one that has the most influence..
Malaria is characterized by repetitive attacks in which the following symptoms can be seen:
It is recommended that when a person begins to manifest symptoms that can be credited to malaria, it is to go immediately to the doctor so that he can start the process of making an accurate diagnosis.
There are several tests that can be applied to diagnose this pathology.
For the first, a drop of blood is placed on a slide, to later spread it with the help of another slide, forming a thin layer.
In the thick drop, several drops are placed on a slide, which coalesce and spread, forming a thick, uniform layer. These samples are then observed under a microscope to detect the presence of the parasite..
For the diagnosis of this pathology, there are many stains that can be used, such as: Giemsa stain, Field stain, Leishman stain and acridine orange stain.
They are commercial rapid tests that seek to detect specific proteins that synthesize the various species of Plasmodium. These include the histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP-2) that produces Plasmodium falciparum and the parasitic lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) secreted by the 4 species of
It is a molecular diagnostic technique that detects the DNA of any of the species of Plasmodium that cause malaria.
Treatment for malaria is varied. It will always depend on the judgment of the treating physician.
Among the drugs used are chloroquine and primaquine, as well as quinine. These drugs have been shown to be effective in eradicating parasitic forms.
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