We report the cloning of a Leishmania chagasi antigen gene and an evaluation of leishmaniasis patient antibody responses to the recombinant protein, rK39. rK39 contains a 39-amino acid repeat that is part of a 230-kDa protein predominant in L. chagasi tissue amastigotes. Sequence analyses showed this protein, LcKin, to be related to the kinesin superfamily of motor proteins. Southern blot analy...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Kala-azar is the visceral and most severe form of leishmaniasis that leads to death if untreated. The causative agents of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) are members of Leishmania (L.) donovani complex which includes L. chagasi and L. infantum. Genome sequences have raised the question whether L. chagasi and L. infantum are synonymous or different. This question has importan...

Leishmanolysin is a worldwide disease that is caused by different species of the genus Leishmania. Leishmanolysin, One of the genes expressed by Leishmania, appears to be an ideal candidate for genetic vaccination. In this study, a full length sequence, which encodes Leishmanolysin functionally critical regions (amino acids 100-579), was cloned from a Leishmania strain endemic to Iran. Analysis...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), caused by the intracellular parasite Leishmania donovani, L. chagasi and L. infantum is characterized by defective cell-mediated immunity (CMI) and is usually fatal if not treated properly. An estimated 350 million people worldwide are at risk of acquiring infection with Leishmania parasites with approximately 500,000 cases of VL being reported each year. In the abs...

Leishmania amazonensis is one of the major etiologic agents of a broad spectrum of clinical forms of leishmaniasis and has a wide geographical distribution in the Americas, which overlaps with the areas of transmission of many other Leishmania species. The LACK and A2 antigens are shared by various Leishmania species. A2 was previously shown to induce a potent Th1 immune response and protection...

No licensed human vaccines are currently available against any parasitic disease including leishmaniasis. Several antileishmanial vaccine formulations have been tested in various animal models, including genetically modified live-attenuated parasite vaccines. Experimental infection studies have shown that Leishmania parasites utilize a broad range of strategies to undermine effector properties ...

background: autophagy as a cellular pathway facilitates several immune responses against infection. it also eliminates invading pathogens through transferring content between the cytosol and the lysosomal vesicles and contributes to the cross-presentation of exogenous antigens to t lymphocytes via mhc class i pathway. autophagy induction is one of the main targets for new drugs and future vacci...

The spread of HIV infection into leishmaniasis endemic areas has increased the incidence of immunosupressed patients with kalaazar in Portugal. The dermotropic zymodeme MON-24 of leishmania infantum has been already isolated from a Portuguese AIDS patient, as in some other Mediterranean countries. In this paper we report the isolation of L. donovani MON-18 from a drug addicted Portuguese patien...

Protein kinases are promising drug targets for Leishmaniasis. We have evaluated the phosphorylation potential of protein kinases in different species and strains of Leishmania. Phosphorylation potential of serine, threonine and tyrosine residues of kinases in Leishmania parasite were studied. The results indicate that some species specific residues of serine, threonine and tyrosine have a phosp...