Folia Parasitologica, vol. 73 (2026)
Special Issue: Does latent Toxoplasma infection mimic the immune profile of schizophrenia? Sex-specific cytokine and brain-marker alterations suggest partial overlap
Jaroslav Flegr, Jana Ullmann, Filip Španiel, Jan Toman, Martin Hůla, Blanka Šebánková, Jana Petrusová, Petr Novotný, Josef Včelák, Šárka Kaňková
Folia Parasitologica 73:006 (2026) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2026.006 
Schizophrenia often features low-grade neuroinflammation. Because latent toxoplasmosis (LT) is more prevalent among individuals with schizophrenia, we tested whether LT yields a biomarker pattern resembling that reported in schizophrenia. We quantified 15 cytokines and 15 blood markers of brain injury in 65 LT-positive individuals and 103 matched LT-negative controls using multiplex immunoassays. Multivariate effects of infection, age, sex, and their interaction were assessed by MANCOVA and PERMANOVA. Effects on individual biomarkers were tested by partial Kendall correlation (controlling for age and sex). Differences in the internal correlation structure...
Lack of evidence for the presence of plastids in the evolutionary history of kinetoplastid protists
Anzhelika Butenko, Julius Lukeš
Folia Parasitologica 73:005 (2026) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2026.005
The discovery of multiple metabolic enzymes encoded by genes of apparent plant or cyanobacterial origin in trypanosomatids led to the influential hypothesis that the common ancestor of Euglenozoa harboured a plastid that was subsequently lost in kinetoplastids. Here, we critically re-evaluate this hypothesis using an expanded, phylogenetically balanced dataset comprising 299 eukaryotic and 102 bacterial species. We reassess the evolutionary histories of 16 genes encoding proteins previously interpreted as evidence for an ancestral euglenozoan plastid using state-of-the-art maximum-likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic approaches, supplemented by topology...
Temporal dynamics of parasite community in the three-spot cichlid Amphilophus trimaculatus from Tres Palos Lagoon, Guerrero, Mexico
Juan Violante-González, Aldo Díaz-Gallegos, Yesenia Gallegos-Navarro, Princessa J. Villalba-Vásquez, Carlos Valencia-Cayetano, Jonatan Carbajal-Violante, Guadalupe Quiterio-Rendón
Folia Parasitologica 73:004 (2026) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2026.004
The temporal dynamics of parasite communities of the Three-spot cichlid Amphilophus trimaculatus Günther 1867 was examined during an annual cycle. A total of 770 fishes were collected between March 2019 and February 2020 from a tropical costal lagoon. Thirteen taxa of metazoan parasites were identified, two of monoxenous and 11 of heteroxenous parasites. No significant changes were observed in the species composition of parasite communities in A. trimaculatus during a 12-yr period (2008-2020). The prevalence of infection of six heteroxenous parasites Austrodiplostomum ostrowskiae Dronen, 2009, Cladocystis cf. trifolium...
First report of adults of Acanthocephaloides irregularis from cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (Cephalopoda) in Tunisia: SEM observations and molecular analysis
Souad Ben Jemaa, Halima Jmii Chine, Lamjed Mansour, Yann Quilichini, Sihem Bahri
Folia Parasitologica 73:003 (2026) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2026.003
During a parasitological survey of the common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (Linnaeus) collected from the Bizerte Lagoon in northern Tunisia, adult acanthocephalans were found attached to the internal wall of cuttlefish stomach. The presence of adult acanthocephalans in cephalopods is unusual, given that definitive hosts for these obligate endoparasites are typically vertebrates. A detailed morphological examination of both sexes using light and scanning electron microscopy revealed high morphological similarities to Acanthocephaloides irregularis Amin, Oğuz, Heckmann, Tepe et Kvach, 2011. A partial sequence of 604 bp of the cytochrome...
Description of Ophthalmonema diodontis gen. et sp. n. (Nematoda: Cystidicolidae), a parasite of the eye and surrouding tissues of porcupinefishes (Diodon spp.), with a key to cystidicolid genera
František Moravec, Craig A. Pelton, Heather D. S. Walden
Folia Parasitologica 73:002 (2026) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2026.002
A new nematode genus and species, Ophthalmonema diodontis gen. et sp. n. (Cystidicolidae), are established based on female specimens (males remain unknown) collected from both eyes of an aquarium-kept spot-fin porcupinefish, Diodon hystrix Linnaeus (Diodontidae, Tetraodontiformes), originally caught in coastal waters off Florida, USA. Examination by light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the mouth structure of this nematode, particularly the presence of two conspicuously large, rounded, opposing dorsoventral plates, each connected by a narrow bridge to the inner end of the pseudolabium, is unique among all cystidicolid...
Three decades of research on molecular genetic characteristics of Echinococcus spp.: a bibliometric study
Aidana Tautanova, Vladimir Kiyan, Marat Dusmagambetov, Tanzilya Almysheva, Aigul Dusmagambetova
Folia Parasitologica 73:001 (2026) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2026.001
Research on the molecular genetics of Echinococcus has advanced significantly owing to its relevance in understanding genetic variation, host-parasite interactions, and the transmission of Echinococcus species. A bibliometric analysis was performed using RStudio (Bibliometrix) and VOSviewer to evaluate molecular genetic research on Echinococcus spp. published between 1985 and 2025. Data were extracted from Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Europe PMC, and ProQuest. The analysis revealed a steady rise in publications on Echinococcus molecular genetics, accelerating from the early 2000s and peaking around 2017, with a slight...