Leishmaniasis immunopathology-impact on design and use of vaccines, diagnostics and drugs

Paul M Kaye, Israel Cruz, Albert Picado, Katrien Van Bocxlaer, Simon L Croft

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a disease complex caused by 20 species of protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Leishmania. In humans, it has two main clinical forms, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and cutaneous or tegumentary leishmaniasis (CL), as well as several other cutaneous manifestations in a minority of cases. In the mammalian host Leishmania parasites infect different populations of macrophages where they multiply and survive in the phagolysosomal compartment. The progression of both VL and CL depends on the maintenance of a parasite-specific immunosuppressive state based around this host macrophage infection. The complexity and variation of immune responses and immunopathology in humans and the different host interactions of the different Leishmania species has an impact upon the effectiveness of vaccines, diagnostics and drugs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-18
Number of pages18
JournalSeminars in immunopathology
Early online date9 Mar 2020
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 9 Mar 2020

Bibliographical note

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

Cite this