We have investigated the use of Leishmania cells as a novel eukaryotic expression system for the production of recombinant protein. These cells are easy to maintain, requiring no CO2 incubator or shaker, and can be grown in standard tissue culture media. Leishmania cells can be readily transfected with plasmid DNA by electroporation and transformants selected with antibiotic resistance. Recent ...

On the Indian subcontinent, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is considered an anthroponosis. To determine possible reasons for its persistence during interepidemic periods, we mapped Leishmania infections among healthy persons and animals in an area of active VL transmission in Nepal. During 4 months (September 2007-February 2008), blood was collected from persons, goats, cows, and buffaloes in 1 vi...

Kinetoplastid parasites of the Leishmania genus cause several forms of leishmaniasis. Leishmania species pathogenic to human are separated into two subgenera, Leishmania (Leishmania) and L. (Viannia). Species from the Viannia subgenus cause predominantly cutaneous leishmaniasis in Central and South America, occasionally leading to more severe clinical presentations. Although the genomes of seve...

Phlebotomine sandflies of the genus Sergentomyia are widely distributed throughout the Old World. It has been suggested that Sergentomyia spp are involved in the transmission of Leishmania in India and Africa, whereas Phlebotomus spp are thought to be the sole vectors of Leishmania in the Old World. In this study, Leishmania major DNA was detected in one Sergentomyia minuta specimen that was co...

The primary host cells for Leishmania replication are macrophages (MP). Several molecules on the surface of professional phagocytic cells have been implicated in the initial process of parasite internalization and initiation of signaling pathways. These pattern recognition receptors distinguish molecular patterns on pathogen surfaces. Mannose receptor (MR), specifically, recognizes mannose resi...

Flagella are constructed and maintained through the highly conserved process of intraflagellar transport (IFT), which is a rapid movement of particles along the axonemal microtubules of cilia/flagella. Particles that are transported by IFT are composed of several protein subunits comprising two complexes (A and B), which are conserved among green algae, nematodes, and vertebrates. To determine ...

Leishmania is a digenetic protozoan parasite causing leishmaniasis in humans. The different clinical forms of leishmaniasis are caused by more than twenty species of Leishmania that are transmitted by nearly thirty species of phlebotomine sand flies. Pentavalent antimonials (such as Pentostam or Glucantime) are the first line drugs for treating leishmaniasis. Recent studies suggest that pentava...

Contact with Leishmania leads to a decreases in mononuclear phagocyte adherence to connective tissue. In this work, we studied the early stages of bond formation between VLA4 and fibronectin, measured the kinetics of membrane alignment and the monocyte cytoplasm spreading area over a fibronectin-coated surface, and studied the expression of high affinity integrin epitope in uninfected and Leish...

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 ...