Persistence without pathology in phosphoglycan-deficient Leishmania major.

Inducing a Strong Th1 Response Mice from Virulent Challenge without Protects Highly Susceptible Leishmania major Vaccination with Phosphoglycan-Deficient

Deficiency of Leishmania Phosphoglycans Influences the Magnitude but Does Not Affect the Quality of Secondary (Memory) Anti-Leishmania Immunity

Despite inducing very low IFN-γ response and highly attenuated in vivo, infection of mice with phosphoglycan (PG) deficient Leishmania major (lpg2-) induces protection against virulent L. major challenge. Here, we show that mice infected with lpg2- L. major generate Leishmania-specific memory T cells. However, in vitro and in vivo proliferation, IL-10 and IFN-γ production by lpg2- induced memor...

Leishmania donovani lacking the Golgi GDP-Man transporter LPG2 exhibit attenuated virulence in mammalian hosts.

Surface phosophoglycans such as lipophosphoglycan (LPG) or proteophosphoglycan (PPG) and glycosylinositol phospholipids (GIPLs) modulate essential interactions between Leishmania and mammalian macrophages. Phosphoglycan synthesis depends on the Golgi GDP-mannose transporter encoded by LPG2. LPG2-null (lpg2(-)) Leishmania major cannot establish macrophage infections or induce acute pathology, wh...

The role of phosphoglycans in Leishmania-sand fly interactions.

Leishmania promastigotes synthesize an abundance of phosphoglycans, either attached to the cell surface through phosphatidylinositol anchors (lipophosphoglycan, LPG) or secreted as protein-containing glycoconjugates. These phosphoglycans are thought to promote the survival of the parasite within both its vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. The relative contributions of different phosphoglycan-co...

Vaccination with phosphoglycan-deficient Leishmania major protects highly susceptible mice from virulent challenge without inducing a strong Th1 response.

Long-term immunity to Leishmania may require the continued presence of parasites, but previous attempts to create attenuated parasites that persist without causing disease have had limited success. Since Leishmania major mutants that lack lipophosphoglycan and other secreted phosphoglycans, termed lpg2-, persist indefinitely in infected mice without inducing any disease, we tested their ability...