The metabolism of protozoan parasites of the Leishmania genus is strongly based on amino acid consumption, but little is known about amino acid uptake in these organisms. In the present work, we identified a Leishmania amazonensis gene (La-PAT1) encoding a putative amino acid transporter that belongs to the amino acid/auxin permease family, a group of H(+)/amino acid symporters. This single cop...

So far, studies of Leishmania persistence in mice have used injections of parasites administered either intravenously in the tail vein or subcutaneously in the footpad. These routes poorly reflect the natural conditions when the sandfly delivers metacyclic promastigotes intradermally. In this study B10D2 and BALB/c mice were inoculated within the ear dermis with 10(4) Leishmania major metacycli...

Sandßies collectedbetweenApril 2003 andNovember 2004 atTallilAirBase, Iraq,were evaluated for the presence of Leishmania parasites using a combination of a real-time Leishmaniageneric polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and sequencing of a 360-bp fragment of the glucose6-phosphate-isomerase (GPI)gene.A total of 2,505pools containing 26,574 sandßieswere testedusing the real-time PCR assay.Leis...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is one of the most severe clinical manifestations as it leads to death in 90% untreated cases. The liver, spleen and bone marrows are organs affected; however, Leishmania parasites able reach intestines where gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) located. Under physiological conditions, gastrointestinal tract GALT interact with enteric nervous system (SNE); there no ...

Leishmania RNA virus (LRV) has been shown to be a symbiotic component of Leishmania parasites in South America. Nested retro-transcription polymerase chain reaction was employed to investigate LRV1 presence in leishmaniasis lesions from Brazil. In endemic areas of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), no LRV1 infection was observed even with mucosal involvement. LRV1 was only detected in Leishmania (V.) guyanen...

As key cells, able to host and kill Leishmania parasites, inflammatory monocytes/macrophages are potential vaccine and therapeutic targets to improve immune responses in Leishmaniasis. Macrophage phenotypes range from M1, which express NO-mediated microbial killing, to M2 macrophages that might help infection. Resistance to Leishmaniasis depends on Leishmania species, mouse strain, and both inn...

background: leishmaniases are a group of diseases caused by leishmania parasites .  growing of drug unresponsiveness in leishmaniasis patients necessitates the development of new drugs and accor­dingly a suitable assay is needed for evaluation of any modalities.  the aim of this study was to compare four drug assays methods, agar dilution, broth dilution, cylinder plate and disk diffusion, for ...

Dendritic cells (DCs) are of utmost importance in initiating an immune response and may also function as targets for pathogens. The presence of pathogens inside DCs is likely to impair their functions and thus, influence immune responses. In the present report, we evaluated the impact of the presence of Leishmania amazonensis during differentiation and maturation of human monocyte-derived DCs. ...

Leishmania cysteine proteases are potential vaccine candidates and drug targets. To study the role of cathepsin B cysteine protease, we have generated and characterized cathepsin B null mutant L. donovani parasites. L. donovani cathepsin B null mutants grow normally in culture, but they show significantly attenuated virulence inside macrophages. Quantitative proteome profiling of wild type and ...

In infected mammalian cells, Leishmania parasites reside within specialized compartments called parasitophorous vacuoles (LPVs). We have previously shown that Retro-2, a member of a novel class of small retrograde pathway inhibitors caused reduced LPV sizes and lower parasite numbers during experimental L. mexicana sp. infections. The purpose of this study was to determine if structural analogs...