We show here that maintenance of Leishmania infections with Leishmania mexicana complex parasites (Leishmania amazonensis and Leishmania pifanoi) is impaired in the absence of circulating antibody. In these studies, we used mice genetically altered to contain no circulating antibody, with and without functional B cells. This experimental design allowed us to rule out a critical role for B cell ...

Lipophosphoglycan is a prominent member of the phosphoglycan-containing surface glycoconjugates of Leishmania. Genetic tests enable confirmation of its role in parasite virulence and permit discrimination between the roles of lipophosphoglycan and related glycoconjugates. When two different lipophosphoglycan biosynthetic genes from Leishmania major were knocked out, there was a clear loss of vi...

Background: Leishmania is an intracellular protozoan parasite that enters and reproduces in macrophage cells. Macrophages are important immune cells phagocyte many pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, parasites spp. but incapable of killing this parasite, living the phagosomes infected macrophages, multiplying, resulting divesting macrophages appearance lesions. Many present drugs for treatment h...

Abstract Cytolytic CD8 +T cells mediate immunopathology in cutaneous leishmaniasis by a mechanism dependent on degranulation and lysis of Leishmania-infected cells, culminating NLRP3 activation IL-1b release. Here, we sought to identify chemokine receptors involved cell migration the lesion that could be employed as treatment target ameliorate disease severity. A transcriptional study identifie...

Leishmaniasis is a neglected disease with a broad clinical spectrum which includes asymptomatic infection. A thorough diagnosis, able to distinguish and quantify Leishmania parasites in a clinical sample, constitutes a key step in choosing an appropriate therapy, making an accurate prognosis and performing epidemiological studies. Several molecular techniques have been shown to be effective in ...

The leishmaniases are diseases caused by pathogenic protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. Infections are initiated when a sand fly vector inoculates Leishmania parasites into the skin of a mammalian host. Leishmania causes a spectrum of inflammatory cutaneous disease manifestations. The type of cutaneous pathology is determined in part by the infecting Leishmania species, but also by a c...

Protozoa of the genus Leishmania are causative agents of leishmaniasis, an important health problem in both human and veterinary medicine. Here, we describe a new heat shock protein (HSP) in Leishmania, belonging to the small HSP (sHSP) family in kinetoplastids. The protein is highly conserved in different Leishmania species, showing instead significant divergence with sHSP's from other organis...

Leishmania parasites cause a group of diseases collectively known as leishmaniases. The primary hosts of Leishmania are sylvatic mammals of several orders (Rodentia, Marsupialia, Carnivora, etc.). Under certain circumstances, particularly in peridomestic and domestic transmission foci, synanthropic and domestic animals can act as source of infection for phlebotomine sand fly vectors. Dogs have ...

We used the cysteine proteinase B (cpb) gene family of the trypanosomatid genus Leishmania as a target to develop rapid, specific, and easy-to-use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to discriminate Leishmania infantum, Leishmania donovani, Leishmania tropica, Leishmania aethiopica, and Leishmania major. Identification of all 5 Old World species and validation of intraspecies variability are ...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), commonly known as kala-azar, is caused by Leishmania donovani and Leishmania infantum (Leishmania chagasi in the Americas). These Leishmania species infect macrophages throughout the viscera, and parasites are typically found in the spleen, liver, and bone marrow. Patients with active disease typically exhibit marked immunosuppression, lack reactivity to the Leishma...