ROS regulate differentiation of visceralizing Leishmania species into the virulent amastigote form.

ABSTRACT: Leishmania virulence and disease development critically depends on the ability of Leishmania promastigotes to infect, differentiate into amastigote forms and replicate inside mammalian host macrophages. Understanding changes associated with amastigote differentiation in axenic culture conditions is key to identifying virulence factors. Here we compared efficiency of the conventional pH-temperature-dependent shift method to induce amastigote differentiation with the recently identified trigger for differentiation mediated by mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS). Using two different visceral leishmaniasis species, L. infantum and. L. donovani, we show that ROS-generating methods such as iron deprivation or exposure to sub-lethal concentrations of H₂

SUBMITTER: Khan YA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6513352 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature