Leishmaniases are important vector-borne disease with a wide range of clinical symptoms in humans and domestic animals. Leishmania species infecting humans are transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies belonging to genera Phlebotomus and Lutzomyia. Here we summarize main aspects of Leishmania development in sand flies. In the vector, Leishmania development is confined to the digestive tract, mainl...

A thorough understanding of the transmission mechanism of any infectious agent is crucial to implementing an effective intervention strategy. Here, our current understanding of the mechanisms that Leishmania parasites use to ensure their transmission from sand fly vectors by bite is reviewed. The most important mechanism is the creation of a "blocked fly" resulting from the secretion of promast...

In this work we have used for the first time green fluorescent protein (GFP) tagged cells of the human parasite Leishmania donovani to observe its development in the gut of phlebotomine sand flies. Low numbers of GFP-tagged L. donovani were more easily detected than nontagged Leishmania, suggesting that GFP-tagged Leishmania could be used to efficiently study the biology of Leishmania in their ...

BACKGROUND Leishmaniases are parasitic diseases present worldwide that are transmitted to the vertebrate host by the bite of an infected sand fly during a blood feeding. Phlebotomine sand flies inoculate into the mammalian host Leishmania parasites embedded in promastigote secretory gel (PSG) with saliva, which is composed of a diverse group of molecules with pharmacological and immunomodulator...

visceral leishmaniasis due to leishmania infantum is endemic in many rural areas of iran. an investigation was carried out during april to november 2001 in ghahan rural district of qom province, in order to identify the phlebotomine sand fly fauna. 971 sand flies were totally collected from outdoor and indoor resting places by sticky traps. ten species of phle botomine sand flies including 8 sp...