BACKGROUND In order to proceed through their life cycle, Leishmania parasites switch between sandflies and mammals. The flagellated promastigote cells transmitted by the insect vector are phagocytized by macrophages within the mammalian host and convert into the amastigote stage, which possesses a rudimentary flagellum only. During an earlier proteomic study of the stage differentiation of the ...

during our study (summer of 1994) twenty two tatera indica were collected and two out of them (9.09%) were naturally infected with amastigote. parasites were cultured in nnn+lit medium and isolated promastigotes were sent to the medical university of montpellier in france for identification. the result of isoenzyme showed, the parasite was leishmania major zymodem mon 26-(=lon 1), therefore tat...

Herein, we report the synthesis of 12 new naphthoquinone derivatives, 6 substituted 1,4-naphthoquinones and 6 heterocycle-fused naphthoquinones, as well as evaluation of their trypanocidal and leishmanicidal activities. Compounds 11a and 13a were active against the amastigote stage of T. cruzi and showed low cytotoxic effects. With respect to leishmanicidal assays, all compounds were inactive a...

An investigation of the ethanolic extract from stems of Caesalpinia echinata Lam (Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae) led to the isolation of five new cassane diterpenes along with known lambertianic acid. Their structures were determined based on spectroscopic methods. A preliminary study on leishmanicidal activity demonstrated that compounds 1, 2 and 6 were found to inhibit the growth of amastigote...

Initiation of productive immune responses against Leishmania depends on the successful transition of dendritic cells (DC) from an immature to a mature phenotype. This process is characterized by high CD40 surface expression as well as interleukin-12 production, which are frequently seen in response to L. major infection. In vivo footpad infection of C3HeB/FeJ mice for 7 days with L. amazonensis...