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 ...

Routine serological diagnoses for leishmaniases, except in visceral cases, are performed using whole-parasite antigens. We used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to evaluate the performance of Leishmania infantum rHsp83 compared with L. major-like total promastigote antigen in the diagnosis of cutaneous (CL), mucosal (ML), and visceral leishmaniases (VL). ELISA-rHsp83 was significantly ...

PSA (Promastigote Surface Antigen) belongs to a family of membrane-bound and secreted proteins present in several Leishmania (L.) species. PSA is recognized by human Th1 cells and provides a high degree of protection in vaccinated mice. We evaluated humoral and cellular immune responses induced by a L. amazonensis PSA protein (LaPSA-38S) produced in a L. tarentolae expression system. This was d...

BACKGROUND While CD40L is typically a membrane glycoprotein expressed on activated T cells and platelets that binds and activates CD40 on the surface on antigen presenting cells, a soluble derivative (sCD40L) that appears to retain its biological activity after cleavage from cell membrane also exists. We recently reported that sCD40L is associated with clinical resolution of visceral leishmania...

Dog is the main reservoir host of visceral leishmaniasis in Iran. The present study was carried out to investigate visceral leishmaniasis in owned dogs with dermal lesions in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province. Thirty- nine owned dogs with dermal lesions were selected. During study, four of dogs were euthanized. The dermal smears, blood and tissue samples were collected and examined using parasi...

leishmania infantum is the most frequent cause of visceral leishmaniasis and l. tropica has been rarely linked to the disease in iran. in this study, bone marrow aspirates were collected from 10 child patients, suspected with visceral leishmaniasis referred to the pediatric wards of kerman medical hospitals, kerman, iran during 2002–2011. leishmania species were identified by using nested pcr i...

An epidemiological study to examine the sero-prevalence of zoonotic visceral leishmaniosis (ZVL) among domestic and wild canines in endemic foci of Iran was carried out during 1999-2003 to assess the distribution of the disease and the possible association between infection in dogs, wild canines and people. Anti-leishmanial antibodies were detected by the direct agglutination test (DAT). Parasi...

Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) can lead to death in more than 95% of cases if left untreated. Accurate and early diagnosis has an important role in reducing mortality rate of this disease. Objective: To express recombinant H2B antigen from an Iranian isolate of Leishmania Infantum and evaluate its efficacy in the diagnosis of VL. Metho...

purpose: evaluation of humoral and cellular immune responses of naturally infected dogs against type i (rcpb) (recombinant cycsteine proteinase b), and ii (rcpa) (recombinant cycsteine proteinase a) recombinant cysteine proteinases and c-terminal extension (cte) of leishmania infantum (l. infantum). materials and methods: in this study, fourteen infected dogs (7 with symptoms, 7 asymptomatics)...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES In Portugal, Phlebotomus perniciosus and P. ariasi, (Subgenus Larroussius; Diptera: Psychodidae) are the proven vectors of leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania infantum. The Algarve Region in southern Portugal has been considered an endemic focus of leishmaniasis since 1980s. The main objective of the present study was to validate a molecular approach to detect Leishmania ...