Macrophages are the major target cell population of the obligate intracellular parasites Leishmania. Although polymorphonuclear neutrophil granulocytes (PMN) are able to internalize Leishmania promastigotes, these cells have not been considered to date as host cells for the parasites, primarily due to their short life span. In vitro coincubation experiments were conducted to investigate whether...

Leishmaniases are diseases caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania that affect more than 20 million people in the world. The initial phase of the infection is fundamental for either the progression or control of the disease. The Leishmania parasites are injected in the skin as promastigotes and then, after been phagocytized by the host macrophages, rapidly transform into amastigotes. In this...

Protozoan parasites of Leishmania spp. invade macrophages as promastigotes and differentiate into replicative amastigotes within parasitophorous vacuoles. Infection of inbred strains of mice with Leishmania major is a well-studied model of the mammalian immune response to Leishmania species, but the ultrastructure and biochemical properties of the parasitophorous vacuole occupied by this parasi...

Old World cutaneous leishmaniasis is a widespread and potentially disfiguring protozoal infection that is endemic in the Mediterranean basin, Africa, and parts of Asia. Human infection is caused by several species of Leishmania parasites, such as Leishmania infantum. Available systemic and topical treatments vary in efficacy and are often unjustified due to their toxicity. We report on a case t...

The maintenance of host defense during pregnancy may depend on heightened innate immunity. We evaluated the immune response of pregnant hamsters during early infection with Leishmania (Viannia) panamensis, a cause of American cutaneous leishmaniasis. At 7 days post-infection, pregnant animals showed a lower parasite burden compared with nonpregnant controls at the cutaneous infection site (P=0....

The global distribution of leishmaniasis is rapidly expanding into new geographic regions. Dogs are the primary reservoir hosts for human visceral leishmaniasis caused by infection with Leishmania infantum. Natural infections with other Leishmania spp. can occur in dogs, but their role as reservoir hosts for other species of Leishmania is uncertain. Leishmania donovani is traditionally consider...

Growing evidence shows that antioxidant proteins of Leishmania could be used as vaccine candidates. In this study, we report the efficacy of Leishmania donovani iron superoxide dismutase B1 (LdFeSODB1) as a vaccine antigen in BALB/c mice in a DNA-protein prime-boost immunization regimen in the presence or absence of murine granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (mGMCSF) DNA adjuvant. ...

BACKGROUND Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) is endemic in many parts of Iran. Recently its incidence is considerable in different parts of Jahrom district, in Fars Province, southern Iran. The aims of our study were to investigate the prevalence of leishmania infection, and identify and characterize the Leishmania species present, among the rodents by molecular methods in a new endemic fo...

Coxiella burnetii is a bacterium that thrives in an acidic parasitophorous vacuole (PV) derived from lysosomes. Leishmania mexicana, a eukaryote, has also independently evolved to live in a morphologically similar PV. As Coxiella and Leishmania are highly divergent organisms that cause different diseases, we reasoned that their respective infections would likely elicit distinct host responses d...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the specificity of the Montenegro skin test (MST) in an area in Brazil, state of Grande do Sul State (RS), which was considered to be non-endemic for leishmaniasis. Sixty subjects presented a positive MST and were reevaluated by clinical examination, serology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of peripheral blood for the detection of subclinic...