Visceral Leishmaniasis

Collin PriceSpring 2011

Visceral Leishmaniasis – also known as Kala Azar – is a systemic disease that primarily

affects the liver, spleen, and bone marrow

Symptoms of VL include hepatosplenomegaly, high fever, anemia, and weight loss

Like every disease we have studied, visceral Leishmaniasis is a disease of the poor

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/photogallery/2011/11india/image001.jpg

VL is endemic in 88 countries, with 90% of cases occurring in Brazil, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sudan.

The causal agent is a protozoan of genus Leishmania - related to organisms causing

Sleeping Sickness, Chagas, and Malaria

Leishmaniasis is transmitted via a blood sucking sand fly of the species

Phlebotominae

Look familiar?

Proteins on the surface of the promastigote allow the organism to escape lysis by the complement

system

Once inside the macrophage, the protozoan relies on a trans-membrane pump to acquire iron for

metabolism

The best way to diagnose infection with Leishmaniasis is visualization of the amastigotes in

blood or aspirates from infected tissue

http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/parasit06/paraav/images/10-21.jpg

Classically, therapy has involved treatment with antimonial compounds

Miltefosine might be the answer, with a 95% cure rate!

35 Countries around the world have reported cases of VL/HIV co-infection

http://www.who.int/leishmaniasis/burden/hiv_coinfection/en/leishmaniasis_hiv_countries.gif

Rescue in Sudan“Where else in the world could 50% of the population die without

anyone knowing?”-Dr. Jill Seaman

REFERENCES

Pictures http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/305800/enlarge (SEM) http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/archives/NSEP/Brazil2002/leishmania/Images/

Leish91.jpg http://

www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/archives/NSEP/Brazil2002/leishmania/Images/Leish91.jpg

http://www.who.int/leishmaniasis/leishmaniasis_maps/en/index.html http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phlebotomus_pappatasi_bloodmeal_begin.jpg http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v5/n11/images/nrmicro1748-f3.jpg http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/photogallery/2011/11india/

image001.jpg http://microbeworld.org/images/stories/twip/l_donovani.jpg http://

www.stanford.edu/group/parasites/ParaSites2010/Zach_Wettstein/Development%20of%20Drugs%20for%20the%20Treatment%20of%20Visceral%20Leishmaniasis.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BVAT0FI3vWo/TGf539li0eI/AAAAAAAAAvI/0ReeaJ6VY78/s1600/Leishmania_tropica_7.jpg

http://animal.discovery.com/invertebrates/monsters-inside-me/cutaneous-leishmaniasis-leishmania/images/cutaneous-leishmaniasis-leishmania.jpg

REFERENCES

Information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visceral_leishmaniasis#cite_note-Dowell1997-38 Amanda C Stanley1 and Christian R Engwerda1. Balancing immunity and

pathology in visceral leishmaniasis. Immunology and Cell Biology (2007) 85, 138–147. doi:10.1038/sj.icb.7100011; published online 5 December 2006

http://biology-today.com/general-zoology/invertebrate-zoology/structure-of-leishmania/

Alison M. Shakarian, Glen C. McGugan, Manju B. Joshi, Mary Stromberg, Lauren Bowers, Christine Ganim, Jessica Barowski and Dennis M. Dwyer. Identification, characterization, and expression of a unique secretory lipase from the human pathogen Leishmania donovani. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. Volume 341, Numbers 1-2, 17-31

Emanuela Handman. Leishmaniasis: Current Status of Vaccine Development. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. April 2001 14:229-243.

Christian R Engwerda, Paul M Kaye, Organ-specific immune responses associated with infectious disease, Immunology Today, Volume 21, Issue 2, 1 February 2000, Pages 73-78

J Román Luque-Ortega, José M Saugar, Cristina Chiva, David Andreu, Luis Rivas. Identification of new leishmanicidal peptide lead structures by automated real-time monitoring of changes in intracellular ATP. Biochem. J. (2003) 375 (221-30)