Influence of the Microenvironment in the Transcriptome of Leishmania infantum Promastigotes: Sand Fly versus Culture.

ABSTRACT: Zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease caused by Leishmania infantum in the Mediterranean Basin, where domestic dogs and wild canids are the main reservoirs. The promastigote stage replicates and develops within the gut of blood-sucking phlebotomine sand flies. Mature promastigotes are injected in the dermis of the mammalian host and differentiate into the amastigote stage within parasitophorous vacuoles of phagocytic cells. The major vector of L. infantum in Spain is Phlebotomus perniciosus. Promastigotes are routinely axenized and cultured to mimic in vitro the conditions inside the insect gut, which allows for most molecular, cellular, immunological and therapeutical studies otherwise inviable. Culture passages are known to decrease infectivity, which is restored by p

SUBMITTER: Alcolea PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4862625 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature