background: zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (zcl) is an expanding disease and public health problem in iran. in the current study, natural leishmania infection rate and seasonal fluctuation of the infection in rhombomys opimus population of a hyperendemic focus of zcl in iran was investigated. methods:   the study was conducted from october 2006 to october 2008 in esfahan province, central par...

Background: Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) due to Leishmania major is increasing in many parts of Iran. This disease originally is a disease found in gerbils. Leishmania parasites are transmitted by sandflies that live and breed in gerbil burrows. Nested PCR amplified Leishmania ITS1-5.8S rRNA gene in both main reservoir host “Rhombomys opimus” and in the “Phlebotomus papatasi” main vec...

Protozoan parasites lack the pathway of the de novo synthesis of purines and depend on host-derived nucleosides and nucleotides to salvage purines for DNA and RNA synthesis. Nucleoside hydrolase is a central enzyme in the purine salvage pathway and represents a prime target for the development of anti-parasitic drugs. The full-length cDNA for nucleoside hydrolase from Leishmania major was clone...

BACKGROUND Rapid diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and identification of Leishmania species is highly important for the disease management. In Israel, CL is caused mainly by Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica species. METHODS We established an easy to handle point of care lesion-swabbing, combined with a highly sensitive multiplex real time PCR (multiplex qPCR) for accurate and r...

Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania major is a most common type of vector-borne disease in Iran. The pentavalent antimonial drugs have been used in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis for a long time, but drug resistance and some of serious side effects have been reported. Thus, discovery and development of new therapeutic candidates are needed. The CM11 peptide ...

Background: Dendritic cells (DCs) contribute essentially to the outset and course of immune responses. So in patients with malignancy, there have been considerable interests in use of these cells in different interventions. Objective: To evaluate the impact of Leishmania major’s components on DC maturation and their use as a therapeutic agent against t...