A massive and homogeneous amount of amastigote-like forms was detected in the stomodeal valve (SV) and the thoracic mid-gut (TMG) of Leishmania major-infected Phlebotomus papatasi, which received a second blood meal 13 to 21 days post-infection on healthy anaesthetized hamsters. After re-feeding, the infected sand flies were dissected out to examine the morphology of the parasite in SV, TMG and...

BACKGROUND Leishmania is a unicellular protozoan parasite that produces several human diseases, ranging from localized self-healing cutaneous lesions to deadly visceral infections. OBJECTIVE The effect of allicin on the growth of Leishmania major (L. major) promastigotes was evaluated under in vitro conditions. Moreover, the efficacy of a topical allicin cream was examined in BALB/c (Bagg alb...

An axenic amastigote culture system was utilized to directly assess the stage-specific antileishmanial effects of antimony on amastigotes of Leishmania donovani devoid of the macrophage host cell. Pentostam, which contains antimony in the form of sodium stibogluconate and the preservative chlorocresol, was used. Cell density was quantified by measuring the activity of the stable enzyme ornithin...

Leishmanias can be produced by inoculation in conditioned McCoy cell culture growth medium (CGM). Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum chagasi (100 parasites) grown in NNN medium was inoculated in 2.5 mL CGM, kept in plates (24 wells) and its multiplication was observed for five days (120 hours). After day 5, the medium was saturated with the flagellate forms of the parasite (promastigotes). The re...

Intracellular amastigotes of the pathogenic protozoon Leishmania mexicana secrete an extensively phosphoglycosylated proteophosphoglycan (aPPG) into the phagolysosome of mammalian host macrophages, that appears to fulfil important functions for the parasites. Promastigotes (the sandfly vector forms) of the same species secrete a proteophosphoglycan with identical protein backbone but exhibiting...

The protozoa Leishmania undergo morphological and biochemical transformation from the promastigote to the amastigote form during their life cycle. To characterize this transformation process, we constructed a cDNA library for the promastigote stage of Leishmania major and used differential cDNA hybridization to identify cDNA sequences expressed at different abundance in promastigotes or amastig...

Five mixed breed dogs were inoculated intradermally (ID) with cultured virulent stationary phase promastigotes of Leishmania infantum Nicole, 1908 stocks recently isolated. Parasite transformations in the skin of ID infected dogs were monitored from the moment of inoculation and for 48 h, by skin biopsies. Anti-Leishmania antibody levels were measured by indirect immunofluorescence assay, count...

Due to the limited availability of effective pharmaceutical products and serious side effects of the available therapy for leishmaniasis, search for useful medicinal plants is necessary. Previous studies reported preventative effect of Echinacea against Leishmania infections through immunologic stimulation. Here we tested concentrated ethanolic extract of the root of Echinacea purpurea prepared...

background: cutaneous leishmaniasis (cl) is endemic in southeastern anatolia, mainly in sanliurfa and hatay provinces, and the causative agents are mostly leishmania tropica and less frequently l. infantum . here, we report the first mal-di-tof analyses of leishmania promastigotes obtained from the cultures of two cl cases from osmaniye and hatay provinces who were initially diagnosed by micros...