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Rodrigo Baptista

Rodrigo Baptista
Houston Methodist Research Institute · Infectious Disease

PhD

About

104
Publications
12,550
Reads
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852
Citations
Additional affiliations
November 2015 - February 2022
University of Georgia
Position
  • Post-Doctoral Research Assistent
September 2014 - October 2015
Federal University of Minas Gerais
Position
  • PostDoc Position
August 2010 - August 2014
Federal University of Minas Gerais
Position
  • PhD Student

Publications

Publications (104)
Article
Full-text available
The siderophore-cephalosporin cefiderocol (FDC) presents a promising treatment option for carbapenem-resistant (CR) P. aeruginosa (PA). FDC circumvents traditional porin and efflux-mediated resistance by utilizing TonB-dependent receptors (TBDRs) to access the periplasmic space. Emerging FDC resistance has been associated with loss of function muta...
Preprint
Full-text available
The cefazolin inoculum effect (CzIE) has been associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with MSSA infections. We aimed to investigate the point prevalence of the CzIE among nasal colonizing MSSA isolates from ICU patients in a multicenter study in Colombia (2019-2023). Patients underwent nasal swabs to assess for S. aureus colonization on...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cryptosporidium spp. are protozoan parasites that cause severe illness in vulnerable human populations. Obtaining pure Cryptosporidium DNA from clinical and environmental samples is challenging because the oocysts shed in contaminated feces are limited in quantity, difficult to purify efficiently, may derive from multiple species, and yield limited...
Preprint
Cryptosporidium spp. are protozoan parasites that cause severe illness in vulnerable human populations. Obtaining pure Cryptosporidium DNA from clinical and environmental samples is challenging because the oocysts shed in contaminated feces are limited in quantity, difficult to purify efficiently, may derive from multiple species, and yield limited...
Preprint
Full-text available
Ticks are obligate blood-feeding parasites associated with a huge diversity of diseases globally. The hard tick Ixodes ricinus is the key vector of Lyme borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis in Western Eurasia. Ixodes ticks have large and repetitive genomes that are not yet well characterized. Here we generate two high-quality I . ricinus genome...
Presentation
Cryptosporidiosis— caused by several Cryptosporidium species— is typically diagnosed by microscopic examination of clinical fecal samples. Single-marker PCR has permitted species and subtype classification. However, single-marker approaches restrict our understanding of the entire genome in this obligately sexual organism. Thus, associations betwee...
Article
Full-text available
Recent advances in the in vitro cultivation of Cryptosporidium parvum using hollow fiber bioreactor technology (HFB) have permitted continuous growth of parasites that complete all life cycle stages. The method provides access to all stages of the parasite and provides a method for non-animal production of oocysts for use in clinical trials. Here w...
Preprint
Full-text available
Giardia duodenalis , a major cause of waterborne infection, infects a wide range of mammalian hosts and is subdivided into eight genetically well-defined assemblages named A through H. However, fragmented genomes and a lack of comparative analysis within and between the assemblages render unclear the molecular mechanisms controlling host specificit...
Article
Full-text available
Cryptosporidium spp. are medically and scientifically relevant protozoan parasites that cause severe diarrheal illness in infants and immunosuppressed populations as well as animals. Although most human Cryptosporidium infections are caused by C. parvum and C. hominis, there are several other human-infecting species including C. meleagridis, which...
Preprint
Full-text available
Multiple Displacement Amplification (MDA) outperforms conventional PCR in long fragment and whole genome amplification which makes it attractive to couple with long-read sequencing of samples with limited quantities of DNA to obtain improved genome assemblies. Here, we explore the efficacy and limits of MDA for genome sequence assembly using Oxford...
Preprint
The siderophore-cephalosporin cefiderocol(FDC) presents a promising treatment option for carbapenem-resistant(CR) P. aeruginosa (PA). FDC circumvents traditional porin and efflux mediated resistance by utilizing TonB-dependent receptors (TBDRs) to access the periplasmic space. Emerging FDC resistance has been associated with loss of function mutati...
Article
Inflammasome-mediated caspase-1 activation facilitates innate immune control of Plasmodium in the liver, thereby limiting the incidence and severity of clinical malaria. However, caspase-1 processing occurs incompletely in both mouse and human hepatocytes and precludes the generation of mature IL-1β or IL-18, unlike in other cells. Why this is so o...
Article
Parasites and their hosts are engaged in reciprocal coevolution that balances competing mechanisms of virulence, resistance, and evasion. This often leads to host specificity, but genomic reassortment between different strains can enable parasites to jump host barriers and conquer new niches. In the apicomplexan parasite Cryptosporidium , genetic e...
Article
Full-text available
Cefiderocol is a siderophore cephalosporin designed to target multi-drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Previously, the emergence of cefiderocol non-susceptibility has been associated with mutations in the chromosomal cephalosporinase (PDC) along with mutations in the PirA and PiuA/D TonB-dependent receptor pathways. Here, we report a clinical c...
Article
Full-text available
Background Vancomycin-resistant enterococci has increased globally in recent decades, with Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) being the most prevalent species. Although the prevalence of VREfm in Chile is high (∼70%), its molecular epidemiology is not well-described. Here, we used whole genome sequencing (WGS) to characterize the circulating lineages of...
Article
Full-text available
Background Cefiderocol (FDC) is a last line treatment for carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CR-PA). FDC retains activity against CR-PA by inhibition of penicillin-binding proteins facilitated by active uptake of drug via TonB-dependent receptors (TBDR). Prior, we have shown an association between mutations in TBDR genes and loss of FDC s...
Article
Full-text available
Background Candida spp. colonization is a risk factor for candidemia in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Recent data suggest that the epidemiology of Candida infections is shifting away from C. albicans, but prospective data on the epidemiology of Candida spp. gut colonization are limited. Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study of adul...
Article
Full-text available
Canine respiratory coronavirus (CRCoV) is one of the main causative agents of canine infectious respiratory disease (CIRD), an illness whose epidemiology is poorly understood. We assessed the prevalence, risk factors, and genetic characterization of CRCoV in privately owned dogs in the Southeastern United States. We PCR-screened 189 nasal swabs fro...
Article
Canine respiratory coronavirus (CRCoV) is one of the main causative agents of canine infectious respiratory disease (CIRD), an illness whose epidemiology is poorly understood. We assessed the prevalence, risk factors, and genetic characterization of CRCoV in privately owned dogs in the Southeastern United States. We PCR-screened 189 nasal swabs fro...
Preprint
Full-text available
Parasites and their hosts are engaged in rapid coevolution that balances competing mechanisms of virulence, resistance, and evasion. This often leads to host specificity, but genomic reassortment between different strains can enable parasites to jump host barriers and conquer new niches. In the apicomplexan parasite Cryptosporidium genetic exchange...
Preprint
Full-text available
Inflammasome-mediated caspase-1 activation facilitates innate immune control of Plasmodium in the liver, thereby limiting the incidence and severity of clinical malaria. However, caspase-1 processing occurs incompletely in the hepatocytes and precludes the generation of mature IL-1beta; or IL-18, unlike in other cells. Why this is so, or how it imp...
Article
Full-text available
The Streptococcus mitis-oralis subgroup of viridans group streptococci are important human pathogens. We previously showed that a substantial portion of S. mitis-oralis strains (>25%) are ‘destined’ to develop rapid, high-level, and stable daptomycin (DAP) resistance (DAP-R) during DAP exposures in vitro. Such DAP-R is often accompanied by perturba...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cryptosporidium parvum is a significant pathogen causing gastrointestinal infections in humans and animals, that is spread through the ingestion of contaminated food and water. Despite its global impact on public health, generating a C. parvum genome sequence has always been challenging due to a lack of in vitro cultivation systems and challenging...
Article
Full-text available
Trypanosoma brucei is the causative agent of African trypanosomiasis, a deadly disease that affects humans and cattle. There are very few drugs to treat it, and there is evidence of mounting resistance, raising the need for new drug development. Here, we report the presence of a phosphoinositide phospholipase C (TbPI-PLC-like), containing an X and...
Article
Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites is a severe disease affecting millions of people around the world. Plasmodium undergoes obligatory development and replication in the hepatocytes, before initiating the life-threatening blood-stage of malaria. Although the natural immune responses impeding Plasmodium infection and development in the liver are...
Article
Full-text available
Sequences that have several copies in a genome, such as multicopy-gene families, mobile elements, and microsatellites, are among the most challenging genomic segments to study. They are frequently underestimated in genome assemblies, hampering the correct assessment of these important players in genome evolution and adaptation.
Article
Full-text available
Recent advances and lower costs in rapid high-throughput sequencing have engendered hope that whole genome sequencing (WGS) might afford complete resistome characterization in bacterial isolates. WGS is particularly useful for the clinical characterization of fastidious and slow growing bacteria. Despite its potential, several challenges should be...
Preprint
Full-text available
Recent advances and lower costs in rapid high-throughput sequencing have engendered hope that whole genome sequencing (WGS) might afford complete resistome characterization in clinical bacterial isolates. Despite its potential, several challenges should be addressed before adopting WGS to detect antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes in the clinical...
Article
Full-text available
Visceral leishmaniasis is an important global health problem with an estimated of 50,000 to 90,000 new cases per year. VL is the most serious form of leishmaniasis as it can be fatal in 95% of the cases if it remains untreated. VL is a particularly acute problem in Brazil which contributed with 97% of all cases reported in 2020 in the Americas. In...
Article
Full-text available
The protozoan Toxoplasma gondii is a highly successful obligate intracellular parasite that, upon invasion of its host cell, releases an array of host-modulating protein effectors to counter host defenses and further its own replication and dissemination. Early studies investigating the impact of T. gondii infection on host cell function revealed t...
Article
Full-text available
Small and intermediate-size noncoding RNAs (sRNAs and is-ncRNAs) have been shown to play important regulatory roles in the development of several eukaryotic organisms. However, they have not been thoroughly explored in Cryptosporidium parvum , an obligate zoonotic protist parasite responsible for the diarrhoeal disease cryptosporidiosis. Using Illu...
Article
Full-text available
The western mesoregion of the state of Santa Catarina (SC), Southern Brazil, was heavily affected as a whole by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2021. This study aimed to evaluate the dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreading patterns in the SC state from March 2020 to April 2021 using genomic surveillance. During this period, there were 23 distinct...
Preprint
Full-text available
COVID-19 has assumed significant and lasting proportions worldwide. Following initial cases in the Western mesoregion, the State of Santa Catarina (SC), southern Brazil, was heavily affected as a whole by the pandemic in early 2021. This study aimed to evaluate the dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreading patterns in the SC state through March 20...
Article
Full-text available
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasing and urgent issue for human health worldwide, as it leads to the reduction of available antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, in turn increasing hospital stays and lethality. Therefore, the study and genomic surveillance of bacterial carriers of resistance in and outside of clinical settings is of...
Article
Full-text available
The Pasteurellaceae family has been associated with fatal diseases in numerous avian species. Several new taxa within this family, including Bisgaard taxon 40, have been recently described in wild birds, but their genomic characteristics and pathogenicity are not well understood. We isolated Bisgaard taxon 40 from four species of seabirds, includin...
Article
Full-text available
Cryptosporidiosis is a leading cause of waterborne diarrheal disease globally and an important contributor to mortality in infants and the immunosuppressed. Despite its importance, the Cryptosporidium community has only had access to a good, but incomplete, Cryptosporidium parvum IOWA reference genome sequence. Incomplete reference sequences hamper...
Article
Full-text available
Finding, characterizing, and monitoring reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is vital to protecting public health. Hybridization capture baits are an accurate, sensitive, and cost‐effective technique used to enrich and characterize DNA sequences of interest, including antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), in complex environmental samples....
Preprint
Finding, characterizing, and monitoring reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is vital to protecting public health. Hybridization capture baits are an accurate, sensitive, and cost-effective technique used to enrich and characterize DNA sequences of interest, including antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), in complex environmental samples....
Article
Leishmania (Leishmania) major is an important agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis, having as a vector sandflies belonging to the genus Phlebotomus. Although this species has been described as restricted to the Old World, parasites similar to L. major have been isolated from South American patients who have never traveled abroad. These parasites were n...
Article
Full-text available
Cryptosporidiosis is ranked sixth in the list of the most important food-borne parasites globally, and it is an important contributor to mortality in infants and the immunosuppressed. Recently, the number of genome sequences available for this parasite has increased drastically. The majority of the sequences are derived from population studies of C...
Article
Full-text available
The bloodstream stage of Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African trypanosomiasis, is characterized by its high rate of endocytosis, which is involved in remodeling of its surface coat. Here we present evidence that RNAi‐mediated expression down‐regulation of vacuolar protein sorting 41 (Vps41), a component of the homotypic fusion and vac...
Poster
Full-text available
The ticks belonging to the complex of R. sanguineus s.l group includes species worldwide distributed considered important agents for vector borne diseases in humans and animals. Among its ecological characteristics, these tick species present a great dispersion capacity due to their elevated activity, leading to a higher population density. Fewer s...
Poster
Full-text available
The ticks belonging to the complex of R. sanguineus s.l group includes species worldwide distributed considered important agents for vector-borne diseases in humans and animals. Among its ecological characteristics, these tick species present a great dispersion capacity due to their elevated activity, leading to a higher population density. Fewer s...
Article
Full-text available
Mitochondrial genome content and structure vary widely across the eukaryotic tree of life, with protists displaying extreme examples. Apicomplexan and dinoflagellate protists have evolved highly reduced mitochondrial genome sequences, mtDNA, consisting of only three cytochrome genes and fragmented rRNA genes. Here, we report the independent evoluti...
Article
Full-text available
Trypanosoma cruzi is a protist parasite and the causative agent of American trypanosomiasis or Chagas disease. The parasite life cycle in its mammalian host includes an intracellular stage, and glycosylated proteins play a key role in host-parasite interaction facilitating adhesion, invasion and immune evasion. Here, we report that a Golgi-localize...
Article
Full-text available
Malaria remains a major global health problem, creating a constant need for research to identify druggable weaknesses in P. falciparum biology. As important components of cellular redox biology, members of the Thioredoxin (Trx) superfamily of proteins have received interest as potential drug targets in Apicomplexans. However, the function and essen...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cryptosporidiosis is a leading cause of waterborne diarrheal disease globally and an important contributor to mortality in infants and the immunosuppressed. Despite its importance, the Cryptosporidium community still relies on a fragmented reference genome sequence from 2004. Incomplete reference sequences hamper experimental design and interpretat...
Article
Full-text available
The protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi almost invariably establishes life-long infections in humans and other mammals, despite the development of potent host immune responses that constrain parasite numbers. The consistent, decades-long persistence of T. cruzi in human hosts arises at least in part from the remarkable level of genetic diversity in multipl...
Preprint
Full-text available
Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites, is a devastating disease that kills over half a million people each year1. Plasmodium sporozoites inoculated by mosquitoes into mammalian hosts undergo a clinically silent phase of obligatory development and replication in hepatocytes before initiating the life-threatening blood-stage of malaria. Thus, under...
Article
Full-text available
Cryptosporidium is a protist parasite that has been identified as the second leading cause of moderate to severe diarrhea in children younger than two and a significant cause of mortality worldwide. Cryptosporidium has a complex, obligate, intracellular but extra cytoplasmic lifecycle in a single host. How genes are regulated in this parasite remai...
Article
Unique lindenane sesquiterpenoid dimers from Chloranthecae spp. were recently identified with promising in vitro antiplasmodial activity and potentially novel mechanisms of action. To gain mechanistic insights to this new class of natural products, in vitro selection of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to the most active antiplasmodial compound, ch...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cryptosporidium is a protist parasite that has been identified as the second leading cause of moderate to severe diarrhea in children younger than two and a significant cause of mortality worldwide. Cryptosporidium has a complex, obligate, intracellular but extra cytoplasmic lifecycle in a single host. How genes are regulated in this parasite remai...
Article
The recent identification of isolates of D. immitis with confirmed resistance to the macrocyclic lactone preventatives presents an opportunity for comparative genomic studies using these isolates, and examining the genetic diversity within and between them. We studied the genomes of Wolbachia endosymbionts of five isolates of D. immitis maintained...
Article
Full-text available
Recent breakthroughs in high-throughput technologies, transcriptomics, and advances in our understanding of gene regulatory networks have enhanced our perspective on the complex interplay between parasite and host. Noncoding RNA molecules have been implicated in critical roles covering a broad range of biological processes in the Apicomplexa. Proce...
Preprint
Full-text available
The protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi almost invariably establishes life-long infections in humans and other mammals, despite the development of potent host immune responses that constrain parasite numbers. The consistent, decades-long persistence of T. cruzi in human hosts arises at least in part from the remarkable level of genetic diversity in multipl...
Article
Full-text available
Significance The deadly malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum , has developed resistance to all currently available drugs, making the discovery of new drug targets a top priority. This eukaryotic pathogen has a unique organelle called the apicoplast that produces essential metabolites. Although the apicoplast carries its own genome, most of its p...
Preprint
Full-text available
Mitochondrial genome content and structure vary widely across the eukaryotic tree of life with protists displaying extreme examples. Apicomplexan and dinoflagellate protists have evolved highly-reduced mitochondrial genome sequences, mtDNA, consisting of only 3 cytochrome genes and fragmented rRNA genes. Here we report the independent evolution of...
Preprint
Full-text available
Malaria remains a major global health problem, and there exists a constant need to identify druggable weaknesses in P. falciparum biology. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) has many essential roles in the asexual lifecycle and may offer new drug targets, but it remains critically understudied. We generated conditional mutants of the putative redox-act...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Mycoleptodiscus indicus is a dematiaceous hyphomycete fungus found on plant leaves. It has been rarely reported as a cause of human or animal disease, possibly because it is difficult to culture and identify from clinical specimens. Infections are presumably acquired by traumatic implantation. Case presentation: An 8-year-old non-imm...
Article
Full-text available
Advances in genomics have made whole genome studies increasingly feasible across the life sciences. However, new technologies and algorithmic advances do not guarantee flawless genomic sequences or annotation. Bias, errors, and artifacts can enter at any stage of the process from library preparation to annotation. When planning an experiment that u...
Preprint
Full-text available
The human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, contains a plastid called the apicoplast that functions to produce essential metabolites. Most of apicoplast proteins are encoded by the nuclear genome and it is unclear how the apicoplast controls its own proteome. Here, we investigated the prokaryotic caseinolytic-protease (Clp) system and how it...
Article
Full-text available
Cryptosporidium is a leading cause of diarrheal disease and an important contributor to early childhood mortality, malnutrition, and growth faltering. Older children in high endemicity regions appear resistant to infection, while previously unexposed adults remain susceptible. Experimental studies in humans and animals support the development of di...