INTRODUCTION: The sand fly, Lutzomyia longipalpis, is the main vector of Leishmania infantum in the Americas, primarily occurring in areas of apparent anthropomorphic modifications in several regions of Brazil. METHODS Sand flies were captured using light traps. RESULTS Out of all captured species, Lu. longipalpis numbers had increased within the park. CONCLUSIONS We report the occurrenc...

Canine leishmaniosis (CanL) is caused by the parasite Leishmania infantum and is a systemic disease, which can present with variable clinical signs, and clinicopathological abnormalities. Clinical manifestations can range from subclinical infection to very severe systemic disease. Leishmaniosis is categorized as a neglected tropical disease and the complex immune responses associated with Leish...

A growing interest in asparagine (Asn) metabolism has currently been observed in cancer and infection fields. Asparagine synthetase (AS) is responsible for the conversion of aspartate into Asn in an ATP-dependent manner, using ammonia or glutamine as a nitrogen source. There are two structurally distinct AS: the strictly ammonia dependent, type A, and the type B, which preferably uses glutamine...

We investigated in BALB/c mice the influence of the immunological environment created by the nematode Trichinella spiralis on the course of visceral leishmaniasis due to Leishmania infantum. On the day of Leishmania inoculation (day 0), mice, T. spiralis infected 7 days earlier, presented increased gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), interleukin-4 (IL-4), and IL-5 mRNA levels locally and systemically...

BACKGROUND New foci of human CL caused by strains of the Leishmania donovani (L. donovani) complex have been recently described in Cyprus and the Çukurova region in Turkey (L. infantum) situated 150 km north of Cyprus. Cypriot strains were typed by Multilocus Enzyme Electrophoresis (MLEE) using the Montpellier (MON) system as L. donovani zymodeme MON-37. However, multilocus microsatellite typin...

Considering the different clinical symptoms of leishmaniasis in Iran, and the wide distribution of its agent and the little information in this regard, this study was performed to characterize the responsible variants using monoclonal antibodies. A total of 156 isolates of Leishmania from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis and one isolate from rat were characterized using the standard monoc...

Leishmaniasis is a zoonotic disease caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania (Ross, 1903) and is the focus of considerable attention in human and veterinary medicine. In the city of Campo Grande, MS, the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis is Leishmania infantum (= L. chagasi) primary vector, comprising approximately 92.9% of the local sandfly population, is Lutzomyia longipalpis. The a...

Over the last decade, the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has increased in many districts of the province of Fars, in southern Iran. Recent epidemiological reports indicate that asymptomatic human infections with Leishmania infantum (the causative agent of VL throughout the Mediterranean basin) occur more frequently in Iran than was previously believed. Between 2004 and 2006, blood sam...

BACKGROUND The development of cost-effective prophylactic strategies to prevent leishmaniasis has become a high-priority. The present study has used the phage display technology to identify new immunogens, which were evaluated as vaccines in the murine model of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Epitope-based immunogens, represented by phage-fused peptides that mimic Leishmania infantum antigens, wer...