Objective(s): Leishmaniasis is endemic in 88 countries. Amastigote forms of Leishmania are experts at exploiting host cell processes to establish infection. Monoclonal antibodies are key reagents used in the diagnosis of infectious and non-infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to produce monoclonal antibodies against axenic amastigotes of the Leishmania infantum strain in Iran.Material...

Kinetoplastids Leishmania infantum and Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agents of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL) and Chagas’ disease (CD), respectively, can both be transmitted vertically in utero from mother to infant [1]. Congenital infection can be either asymptomatic infection or overt, symptomatic infection [2]. Dogs are a primary domestic reservoir associated with human CD in certa...

Background: Leishmania infection is a serious worldwide health concern that caused by various types of parasite genus. Current therapies for this disease, including pentavalent antimonial complexes, are not safe and do have enough efficacy. The Artemisia aucheri spring leaf extract has been reported to antimicrobial effects on variety pathogens. Objective: This study aimed find how A. affects t...

The infraspecific variability of the species Leishmania infantum is studied by using genetic markers generated by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). We have applied this technique, using 18 primers of arbitrary sequence, to 33 strains of the parasite belonging to 18 zymodemes isolated in different clinical forms and hosts. Other strains belonging to the species L. donovani, L. major, L. t...

Fifty dogs from the area around Barcelona, Spain, were evaluated for serologic evidence of exposure to vector-borne pathogens. Dirofilaria immitis, E h r l i c h i a c a n i s, Borrelia burgdorferi, L e i s h m a n i a infantum, Bartonella vinsonii s u b s p e c i e s b e r k h o f f i i , and Rickettsia rickettsii a n t i g e n s were used for testing purposes. Seroreactivity was determined in...

The Leishmania donovani complex, which consists of L. donovani, L. infantum-L. chagasi, and L. archibaldi, is responsible for visceral manifestations of leishmaniasis. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis is the standard method for the characterization and identification of strains of Leishmania. For L. infantum, the predominance of zymodeme MON-1 significantly reduces the discriminative power of ...

Ecto-nucleotidase activity is involved in the infection process of Leishmania and various other parasites that enables modulation of host immune responses to promote disease progression. One of the enzymes responsible for this activity is the ecto-nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase (E-NTPDase). The enzyme hydrolyzes nucleotides tri- and/or di-phosphate into monophosphate products, which...

Lainson and Rangel (2005) have recently published a consistent review on Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae) and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Americas, with particular attention to the eco-epidemiology of disease in Brazil. In their review, they have discussed with property the taxonomic position and origin of the causal agent of the disease. However, I would like to add some com...

Several parameters should be addressed before incriminating a vector for Leishmania transmission. Those may include its ability to become infected by the same Leishmania species found in humans, the degree of attractiveness for reservoirs and humans and capacity to sustain parasite infection under laboratory conditions. This study evaluated the vectorial capacity of Lutzomyia cruzi for Leishman...

Leishmania (L.) infantum is the causative agent in an endemic focus of canine leishmaniasis in the Mont-Rolland district (Thiès, Senegal). In this area, the transmission cycle is well established and more than 30% of dogs and 20% of humans are seropositive for L. infantum. However, the sand fly species involved in L. infantum transmission cycle are still unknown. Between 2007 and 2010, 3654 san...