Introduction: The term Leishmaniasis applies to a group of parasitic diseases caused by the genus Leishmania. Route of infection is one of the variables that have been reported to influence the immune responses as well as the disease outcome in experimental models of leishmaniasis. This research aims to study the effect of route of infection on the pathogenicity of Leishmania major in BALB/c mi...

Leishmaniasis, caused by protozoan parasites of the Leishmania genus, is an infection encountered in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Leishmania parasites are propagated by different species of the sandfly vector (genus Phlebotomus or Lutzomya), depending on the region. Old World species of Leishmania, such as L. donovani and L. major, cause pathology from southern Europe to Afric...

background: cutaneous leishmaniasis (cl) is one of the most important neglected tropical diseases and a major public health challenge in iran caused by leishmania spp and transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies. the number of cl cases has shown an increasing pattern all over the country, including the district of varamin, southeast of tehran, iran. this study aimed to identify the leishmania spp...

Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. There is no vaccine against human leishmaniasis and the treatment of the disease would benefit from a broader spectrum and a higher efficacy of leishmanicidal compounds. We analyzed the leishmanicidal activity and the mechanism of action of the calcium ionophore, calcimycin. L. major promastigotes were...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the leishmanicidal activity of saponin, dasyscyphin C of Eclipta prostrata and sapogenin, gymnemagenol from Gymnema sylvestre leaves under in vitro conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS Dasyscyphin C/Gymnemagenol were dissolved in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and diluted with liquid medium to obtain concentrations ranging from 1000 to 15 mug /ml. The leishmanicidal activi...

Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania major is a most common type of vector-borne disease in Iran. The pentavalent antimonial drugs have been used in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis for a long time, but drug resistance and some of serious side effects have been reported. Thus, discovery and development of new therapeutic candidates are needed. The CM11 peptide ...

Trypanosomatid protozoans depend upon exogenous sources of pteridines (pterins or folates) for growth. A broad spectrum pteridine reductase (PTR1) was recently identified in Leishmania major, whose sequence places it in the short chain alcohol dehydrogenase protein family although its enzymatic activities resemble dihydrofolate reductases. The properties of PTR1 suggested a role in essential pt...

BACKGROUND Pteridine metabolic pathway is unusual features of Leishmania, which is necessary for the growth of parasite. Leishmania has evolved a complex and versatile pteridine salvage network which has the ability of scavenging a wide area of the conjugated and unconjugated pteridines especially folate and biopterin. In this study, we focus on the inhibition of ptr1 gene expression. METHODS...

Leishmania pyrimidine salvage is replete with opportunities for therapeutic intervention with enzyme inhibitors or antimetabolites. Their uptake into cells depends upon specific transporters; therefore it is essential to establish whether various Leishmania species possess similar pyrimidine transporters capable of drug uptake. Here, we report a comprehensive characterization of pyrimidine tran...

The mechanism by which the salivary gland lysate (SGL) of Lutzomyia longipalpis enables Leishmania infection remains under investigation. One possibility is that saliva promotes cellular recruitment leading to development of skin lesions. In this study, we investigated leukocyte recruitment induced by L. major, L. major + SGL, or SGL alone into the peritoneal cavity of BALB/c mice. The administ...