A study under laboratory control was conducted for 3 months to investigate the dynamic changes of local skin reaction and histopathology in guinea pigs exposed to the continuous and repeated bites of mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus)at 1, 6, and 24h after biting.Histopathologically, there were massive cumulations of basophils in the upper dermis of the infected skin, which coincided well with the degree of skin reaction. It would seem reasonable to suggest that hypersensitive guinea pigs show both immediate reaction and cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity.The occurrence of basophils in Skin reaction to mosquito biting, or to other blood-sucking dipterous biting has not previously been reported.

The paper selectively introduces the famous and richly historical parasite collections in the world.Over the years these institutions or museums have proven to be valuable resource for researchers and students around the world for locating information about specimen holdings,accessions,category of type specimens for each collection listed,services(including resource sharing),and background of the reservation institutes.The information presented here could provide useful references for researchers and teachers.

Regular surveillance of malaria epidemics is fundamenta l f or malaria epidemiology.Malaria early warning system(MEWS)based on malaria sur veillance is a systematic framework for the prediction of malaria epidemics.The surveillance included environmental factors,transmission potential,risk factors ,morbidity and mortality,and weather condition.The MEWS will enable the authorit ies to make early and correct forecast of malaria and take proper preventive mea sures.

In order to get more nutrition from outside the erythrocyte,new channels were induced by malaria par-asite.These channels play an important role in physiology of the parasitized cell.They are of interest both as potential targets in their own right and as potential drug targeting routes capable of mediating the entry of cytotoxic drugs into the app-ropriate compartment of the infected cell.It is hoped that this new anti-malarial strategy will help to create a sustainable anti-malaria-drug-development portfolio for the treatment of malaria.

This paper presents a new revised "Checklist of the Anopheline Mosquitoes in China" based on the development of the mosquito-taxonomic researches during the years of 1988-2007. The new checklist contained 61 species (subspecies) of anopheline mosquitoes all in China. Twelve species among the past records were omitted because of their invalid specific names which were allocated into following categories: ① A doubtful record in China, with no typical specimen up to date since last century, e.g. Anopheles campestris reported in Yunnan; ② Misidentification: An. atroparvus and An. indiensis; ③ Confirmed as synonyms by hybridizing experiments or molecular identification, including 9 species as follows: An. changfus, An. dazhaius, An. kiangsuensis, An. anthropophagus, An. kunmingensis, An. xiaokuanus, An. junlianensis, An. yutsushiroensis (part) and An. fluviatilis. Meanwhile, the following rectified 4 anopheline mosquito species should be added to the new checklist: An. belenrae, An. lesteri, An. pullus, and An. baimaii.

The isolation and culture of pathogenic free-living amoebae are useful in the diagnosis and research. This review focuses on the methods of isolation and cultivation of pathogenic free-living amoebae, including sample treatment, culture conditions, passage culture, pathogen detection, and maintenance.

This paper reports the rectification results of the tribe aedini mosquitoes formerly recorded in China, using the classification system proposed by Reinert during the recent years. Among all the 171 species of Chinese aedini mosquitoes examined, 160 species could be included in the new classification system. The other 11 species were listed in traditional taxonomic status for further study. The proposed new classification system of the Chinese aedini mosquitoes contained 29 genera, i.e. Aedes, Armigeres, Ayurakitia, Bothaella*, Bruceharrisonius*, Christophersiomyia*, Collessius*, Danielsia*, Downsiomyia*, Edwardsaedes*, Finlaya*, Fredwardsius*, Gilesius*, Heizmannia, Himalaius*, Hopkinsius*, Hulecoeteomyia*, Jihlienius*, Kenknightia*, Luius*, Mucidus*, Neomelaniconion*, Ochlerotatus, Phagomyia*, Scutomyia*, Stegomyia*, Tanakaius*, Udaya, and Verrallina. Among them, 22 genera (*) were new records in China. Besides, the authors made a significant revision to the following 4 species recorded formerly in 《Fauna Sinica, Insecta Vol. 8, Diptera: Culicidae》: Ae. (Edw.) antuensis as the synonym of Ed. pingpaensis, while Ae. (Sin.) occidentayunnanus, Ae. (Och.) flavidorsalis, and Ae. (Fin.) subsimilis should be rectified as Hz. (Mat.) occidentayunnana, Oc. albineus, and Ud. subsimilis, respectively.

β?carbonic anhydrases(β?CAs)are ubiquitous metalloenzymes which active site contains a zinc ion(Zn2+),and they could catalyze the hydration of carbon dioxide to bicarbonate and protons efficiently and are involved in many biological pro?cesses,such as respiration,pH and CO2 homeostasis,biosynthetic reactions,virulence regulation and so on,and may play a critical role in the life activity of many organisms which contain these enzymes. β?CAs are widely distributed in fungi,bacteria, algae,plants and a small number of protozoan and metazoan except vertebrates. Therefore,as potential drug targets for design?ing and developing antibacterial and anti?parasitic drugs,β?CAs promise a broad application prospect. This paper focuses on the distribution,physiological function and the progress of researches on β?CAs in parasites and their vectors.

Objective To examine the inhibitory effect of antisense nucleic acid on the in vitro translation of esterase mRNA from dipterex resistant Culex pipiens pallens . Methods 18 mer nucleic acid was synthesized and complementary to the translation initiation site of mRNA of dipterex resistant mosquitoes. The ODNs were annealed to the corresponding mRNA molecules and they were added to rabbit reticulocyte cell free system. The translation products were analyzed by SDS PAGE. After fixing, the gel was exposed to X ray film by autoradiography for analysis of protein synthesis. Results Six ?mol/L of ODNs elicited a 50% reduction in specific protein expression , and 20 ?mol/L of ODNs inhibited the expression of esterase by 80%. The SDS PAGE showed that the band of reduced amounts of 65 kDa protein for resistant mosquito was almost the same as that for sensitive sample. Conclusion Antisense oligonucleic acids to the esterase mRNA of dipterex resistant mosquito could effectively inhibit its in vitro translation.

Objective: To understand the morphologic foundation for differences in drug-resistance, virulence and immunity between chloroquine-sensitive (N) and chloroquine-resistant (RC) strains of Plasmodium berghei. Methods: The RC strain and the N strain were compared concerning the formation and morphologic features of digestive vacuoles and haemozoin with transmission electron microscope. Results: There was a single large digestive vacuole and multiple micro-single-mem-braned vacuole-like structures in the trophozoites of the N strain, and haemozoins centralized and fused during their schizo-gony were situated under the plasma membrane. Whereas there were few digestive vacuoles in the trophozoites of the RC strain, but with multiple micro-single-membraned vacuole-like structures instead. The RC strain formed obviously less hemo-zoins than that of the N strain and the hemozoins were not centralized and fused during the schizogony. Conclusion: The RC strain forms multiple single-membraned food vacuole-like structures in the trophozoites, and has different mechanism for detoxifying free heme with N strain and the features may be the foundation for the difference in drug-resistance, virulence, immunity between RC strain and N strain of Plasmodium berghei.