The Indian subcontinent is the only region where arsenic contamination of drinking water coexists with widespread resistance to antimonial drugs that are used to treat the parasitic disease visceral leishmaniasis. We have previously proposed that selection for parasite resistance within visceral leishmaniasis patients who have been exposed to trivalent arsenic results in cross-resistance to the...

The evolution of drug-resistance in pathogens is a major global health threat. Elucidating the molecular basis of pathogen drug-resistance has been the focus of many studies but rarely is it known whether a drug-resistance mechanism identified is universal for the studied pathogen; it has seldom been clarified whether drug-resistance mechanisms vary with the pathogen's genotype. Nevertheless th...

background: this study was designed to detect whether there is a correlation between in vitro susceptibility of field isolates of leishmania major and the clinical outcomes of meglumine antimoniate (glucantime®) therapy, the main­stay of cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment in iran. methods: forty-three patients infected with l. major were enrolled in this study from october 2009 to march 2010 and...

Resistance to antimicrobial drugs represents one of the greatest threats to the control of infectious diseases and is a particular problem in treating diseases caused by parasitic protists. These pathogens are of enormous medical importance, causing diseases such as malaria, toxoplasmosis, trypanosomiasis, and leishmaniasis. In the absence of effective vaccines, the control of these diseases is...

Leishmaniases are parasitic diseases that spread in many countries with a prevalence of 12 million cases. There are few available treatments and antimonials are still of major importance in the therapeutic strategies used in most endemic regions. However, resistance toward these compounds has recently emerged in areas where the replacement of these drugs is mainly limited by the cost of alterna...

Leishmaniasis is a debilitating disease caused by the parasite Leishmania. There is extensive clinical polymorphism, including variable responsiveness to treatment. We study Leishmania donovani parasites isolated from visceral leishmaniasis patients in Nepal that responded differently to antimonial treatment due to differing intrinsic drug sensitivity of the parasites. Here, we present a proof-...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) affects over 500,000 people worldwide each year. The disease occurs in the Mediterranean basin, Central and South America and is caused by Leishmania infantum (syn L. chagasi). VL is an endemic disease in Colombia, particularly along the Caribbean coast and the Magdalena River Valley and 90% of VL cases occur in children under the age of five. The first line of treat...

The clinical value of antimonial drugs, the mainstay therapy for leishmaniasis, is now threatened by the emergence of acquired drug resistance, and a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms is required. Using the model organism Leishmania tarentolae, we have examined the role of trypanothione S-transferase (TST) in trivalent antimony [Sb(III)] resistance. TST has S-transferase ...

background: pentavalent antimonials are the first line drugs for the treatment of leishmaniasis. unresponsiveness of leishmania spp. to antimonial drugs is a serious problem in some endemic areas. investigations on molecular mechanisms involved in drug resistance are essential for monitoring and managing of the disease. cal-cineurin is an essential protein phosphatase for number of signal trans...