The visceral form of leishmaniasis is the most severe form of the disease and of particular concern due to the emerging problem of HIV/visceral leishmaniasis (VL) co-infection in the tropics. Till date miltefosine, amphotericin B and pentavalent antimony compounds remain the main treatment regimens for leishmaniasis. However, because of severe side effects, there is an urgent need for alternati...

Transgenic Leishmania infantum promastigotes, which constitutively express green fluorescent protein (GFP) in their cytoplasm, were used to monitor the effects of antileishmanial compounds in real time. The GFP-based assay provided a reliable measure of drug-induced inhibitory effects on protein expression, resulting in a dynamic picture of the responses of leishmanial promastigotes to the comp...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and activate innate immune cells to induce cytokines and co-stimulatory molecules such as CD40 and to enhance antigen presentation to T cells (1) that, upon activation, can either eliminate or support the pathogen (2). Herein, we propose that this duality in TLR functions results from their cross-talk with CD40....

Background : Production of monoclonal antibodies to Leishmania antigens assists the identification and characterization of these organisms. Objective: Production of monoclonal antibodies against epitopes on the gp63. Methods: Two murine monoclonal antibodies to gp63 were produced and characterized. The reactions of both antibodies with soluble leishmanial antigens, purified gp63 and truncated r...

A series of (5-nitrofuran-2-yl)-1, 3, 4-thiadiazole-2-yl derivatives 6a-6e have been synthesized and screened for in-vitro anti-leishmanial activity against the promastigote form of L. major. The structure of Schiff bases were confirmed by 1H NMR, IR. Screening results indicate that all of the designed and synthesized final compounds (6a-6e) significantly reduced the viability of promastigotes ...

Biopterin is required for growth of the protozoan parasite Leishmania and is salvaged from the host through the activities of a novel biopterin transporter (BT1) and broad-spectrum pteridine reductase (PTR1). Here we characterize Leishmania major quinonoid-dihydropteridine reductase (LmQDPR), the key enzyme required for regeneration and maintenance of H(4)biopterin pools. LmQDPR shows good homo...