Amastin Knockdown in Leishmania braziliensis Affects Parasite-Macrophage Interaction and Results in Impaired Viability of Intracellular Amastigotes.

ABSTRACT: Leishmaniasis, a human parasitic disease with manifestations ranging from cutaneous ulcerations to fatal visceral infection, is caused by several Leishmania species. These protozoan parasites replicate as extracellular, flagellated promastigotes in the gut of a sandfly vector and as amastigotes inside the parasitophorous vacuole of vertebrate host macrophages. Amastins are surface glycoproteins encoded by large gene families present in the genomes of several trypanosomatids and highly expressed in the intracellular amastigote stages of Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania spp. Here, we showed that the genome of L. braziliensis contains 52 amastin genes belonging to all four previously described amastin subfamilies and that the expression of members of all subfamilies is upregulated in L. brazi

SUBMITTER: de Paiva RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4671664 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature