Oxidative stress-driven enhanced iron production and scavenging through Ferroportin reorientation worsens anemia in antimony-resistant Leishmania donovani infection.

ABSTRACT: Despite the withdrawal of pentavalent-antimonials in treating Visceral leishmaniasis from India, recent clinical isolates of Leishmania donovani (LD) exhibit unresponsiveness towards pentavalent-antimony (LD-R). This antimony-unresponsiveness points towards a genetic adaptation that underpins LD-R's evolutionary persistence and dominance over sensitive counterparts (LD-S). This study highlights how LD evolutionarily tackled antimony exposure and gained increased potential of scavenging host-iron within its parasitophorous vacuoles (PV) to support its aggressive proliferation. Even though anti-leishmanial activity of pentavalent antimonials relies on triggering oxidative outburst, LD-R exhibits a surprising strategy of promoting reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in infected macrophag

SUBMITTER: Ghosh S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11785346 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature