BACKGROUND The binding of Leishmania promastigotes to the midgut epithelium is regarded as an essential part of the life-cycle in the sand fly vector, enabling the parasites to persist beyond the initial blood meal phase and establish the infection. However, the precise nature of the promastigote stage(s) that mediate binding is not fully understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To address ...

we describe a case of visceral leishmaniasis (vl) due to leishmania tropica in a 50-year-old iranian man lived in a vl-endemic area in southwest of iran. the patient presented with a 3-month history of fever and splenomegaly. clinical signs and serological findings were suggestive of vl. spleen biopsy was taken from the patient and intracellular forms of leishmania amastigotes was seen in giems...

A model of skin infection with Leishmania amazonensis with low doses of parasites is compared to infection with high doses of L. amazonensis and low and high doses of Leishmania major. C57BL/6 mice were infected with 10³ or 10(6) parasites in the ear and the outcome of infection was assessed. The appearance of lesions in mice infected with 10³ parasites was delayed compared to mice infected wit...

Trypanosomatid parasites of the genus Leishmania are the causative agents of leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease with several clinical manifestations. Leishmania major is the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), which is largely characterized by ulcerative lesions appearing on the skin. Current treatments of leishmaniasis include pentavalent antimonials and amphotericin B, h...

Leishmania are protozoan parasites that replicate within mature phagolysosomes of mammalian macrophages. To define the biochemical composition of the phagosome and carbon source requirements of intracellular stages of L. major, we investigated the role and requirement for the gluconeogenic enzyme fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBP). L. major FBP was constitutively expressed in both extracellular ...

background : leishmaniasis is an endemic disease in 88 countries. reports on leishmania drug resistance are growing in number. the mechanism of unresponsiveness against glucantime in iranian cutaneous leishmaniasis has not yet been characterized. to begin the first step in finding an anti- leishmania chemotherapy, we prepared recombinant l. major ptr1 enzyme and characterized its activity by en...

background: leishmaniasis is a complex disease which presents as visceral, cutaneous and mucocutaneous forms. the current treatment options for this infection are very limited and the immunological state of the host appears to play an important role in the efficacy of the treatment. immunostimulation through immune response activating agents such as imiquimod is another rational approach for th...

conclusions this study showed that aqueous allium cepa and ixora brachiata root extracts as natural products could be used as alternative drugs in treatment of leishmaniasis. results among tested plant extracts, ixora brachiata root extracts revealed the best activity against leishmania major promastigotes with ic100 value of 2.5 mg/ml and ic50 value of 0.078 mg/ml. patients and methods the par...