Virulence Factors and Immune Evasion in Leishmania spp.
Pp. 291-345 (55)
Jose M. Requena and Manuel Soto
Abstract
Protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania cause a group of diseases,
known as leishmaniasis, affecting humans and also household pets, mainly canids. In
the human host, different pathological outcomes ranging from self-healing cutaneous
lesions to systemic visceral leishmaniasis are produced by these parasites; these
diseases affect millions of people worldwide. Similar to a virus, bacteria and other
parasites, Leishmania need to evade immune destruction with the aim of completing
their life cycle in their mammalian hosts. Moreover, the long co-evolutionary history
between parasites of the genus Leishmania and their hosts for several millions of years
has led to a balanced relationship. To avoid the powerful immune system of mammals,
the parasite has developed a set of sophisticated mechanisms to persist, replicate, and
spread.
Keywords:
Complement system, Exosomes, Glycosylinositolphospholipids
(GIPLs), IFN-γ, Immune response, Lipophosphoglycan (LPG), Macrophage,
Neutrophil, Phagolysosome, Virulence factor.
Affiliation:
Centro de Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.