Severe Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in a Human Immunodeficiency Virus Patient Coinfected with Leishmania braziliensis and Its Endosymbiotic Virus.

ABSTRACT: Leishmania parasites cause a broad range of disease, with cutaneous afflictions being, by far, the most prevalent. Variations in disease severity and symptomatic spectrum are mostly associated to parasite species. One risk factor for the severity and emergence of leishmaniasis is immunosuppression, usually arising by coinfection of the patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Interestingly, several species of Leishmania have been shown to bear an endogenous cytoplasmic dsRNA virus (LRV) of the Totiviridae family, and recently we correlated the presence of LRV1 within Leishmania parasites to an exacerbation murine leishmaniasis and with an elevated frequency of drug treatment failures in humans. This raises the possibility of further exacerbation of leishmaniasis in the presence of

SUBMITTER: Parmentier L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4824227 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature