Synthetic peptides as a novel approach for detecting antibodies against sand fly saliva

Sand fly saliva: toward a vaccine against leishmaniases

Leishmaniases are a group of sand fly-borne diseases caused by protozoan parasites from species of Leishmania genus. These diseases are reported in about 100 countries with a prevalence of 12 million people infected and incidence of 2 million people per year, putting approximately 350 million people at risk of the infections. Leishmaniases are endemic and are considered as important public heal...

sand fly saliva: toward a vaccine against leishmaniases

leishmaniases are a group of sand fly-borne diseases caused by protozoan parasites from species of leishmania genus. these diseases are reported in about 100 countries with a prevalence of 12 million people infected and incidence of 2 million people per year, putting approximately 350 million people at risk of the infections. leishmaniases are endemic and are considered as important public heal...

Sand fly saliva & host immune response

Novel synthetic antimicrobial peptides against Streptococcus mutans.

Streptococcus mutans, a common oral pathogen and the causative agent of dental caries, has persisted and even thrived on the tooth surface despite constant removal and eradication efforts. In this study, we generated a number of synthetic antimicrobial peptides against this bacterium via construction and screening of several structurally diverse peptide libraries where the hydrophobicity and ch...

SALO, a novel classical pathway complement inhibitor from saliva of the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis

Blood-feeding insects inject potent salivary components including complement inhibitors into their host's skin to acquire a blood meal. Sand fly saliva was shown to inhibit the classical pathway of complement; however, the molecular identity of the inhibitor remains unknown. Here, we identified SALO as the classical pathway complement inhibitor. SALO, an 11 kDa protein, has no homology to prote...