Interleukin-10 overproduction has been associated with worse prognosis in human cutaneous leishmaniasis, while IFN-γ-dependent responses are associated with parasite killing and host protection. Innovative strategies are needed to overcome therapeutic failure observed in endemic areas. The use of monoclonal antibody-based immunotherapy targeting IL-10 cytokine was evaluated here. Partial IL-10 ...

Amastigotes of Leishmania major have a great ability to evade destruction in host cells. This study investigated the activation in resident, inflammatory macrophages and J774 cells in vitro treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), soluble Leishmania antigen (SLA), calcium ionophore (CaI) and magnesium (Mg2+) alone or combined. An increase in nitric oxide (NO) production was observed in J774 or in...

Leishmania amazonensis is an intracellular protozoal parasite that causes cutaneous leishmaniasis in humans and other mammalian hosts. This disease affects people within tropical and subtropical countries. Generally a Th1 cell-mediated host immune response is thought to be important for the clearance of the parasite. However, throughout this work we have shown that a productive B cell response ...

A glycoprotein of 78,000 molecular mass (78 kDa), associated with the membrane of Leishmania infantum promastigotes, was identified and immunopurified by monoclonal antibody (mAb) LD9 produced against isolated membrane preparations. mAb LD9 was subsequently found to bind to human transferrin, also of 78 kDa. Binding of LD9 to transferrin was completely abolished when the mAb was preabsorbed by ...

BACKGROUND The therapy of leishmania infection is difficult and each year 1.5 million new cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis and 500,000 new cases of visceral leishmaniasis are estimated, therefore, there is a need for an effective vaccine. Monoclonal antibody (mAb) is one of the suitable methods for isolation and purification of leishmania antigens. In this report, we produced several mAb agains...

Objective(s): ISCOMATRIX vaccines have now been shown to induce strong antigen-specific cellular or humoral immune responses to a broad range of antigens of viral, bacterial, parasite or tumor. In the present study, we investigated the role of ISCOMATRIX charge in induction of a Th1 type of immune response and protection against Leishmania major infection in BALB/c mice.  Materials and Methods:...

For many infectious diseases that still don’t have an effective vaccine, enhancing T cell immune response may be the key to solve this problem. Leijuvant represents a whole new perspective of adjuvant that uses Leishmania as an effective T cell stimulator. Leishmania is a parasite that specifically lives within macrophage, a professional antigen presenting cell (APC). As a potential vaccine adj...

In a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Ryan et al. (6) reported antileishmanial serologic data based on soluble antigens from promastigotes cultivated in a proteinfree medium. Using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), it was possible to detect immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibody in patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (143 sera) and visceral leishmaniasis (12...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is one of the most important parasitic diseases with approximately 350 million people at risk. Due to the non availability of an ideal drug, development of a safe, effective, and affordable vaccine could be a solution for control and prevention of this disease. In this study, a potential Th1 stimulatory protein- Triose phosphate isomerase (TPI), a glycolytic enzyme, ...

Spain has one of the world's largest pools of organ donors and is a global leader in terms of the number of transplants it performs. The current outbreak of leishmaniasis in Fuenlabrada (in the southwest of the region of Madrid, Spain) has involved 600 clinical cases since late 2009 (prevalence 0.2%). It may therefore be wise to monitor the town's transplanted population for Leishmania infantum...