Nicotinamide mitigates visceral leishmaniasis by regulating inflammatory response and enhancing lipid metabolism.

Background: Currently, treatment regimens for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) are limited because of the presence of numerous adverse effects. Nicotinamide, a readily available and cost-effective vitamin, has been widely acknowledged for its safety profile. Several studies have demonstrated the anti-leishmanial effects of nicotinamide in vitro.

LdCyPA attenuates MAPK pathway to assist Leishmania donovani immune escape in host cells.

Background: Visceral leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Macrophages serve as the primary host cells for L. donovani, the immune response capability of these host cells is crucial for parasites' intracellular survival.

Upregulation of PD-1/PD-L1 and downregulation of immune signaling pathways lead to more severe visceral leishmaniasis in undernutrition mice.

Background: Leishmaniasis is mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical developing countries, where chronic undernutrition often co-exists. Undernutrition is reported to promote the progression of leishmaniasis, but its immune mechanisms have not been fully elucidated.

Methods: To simulate chronic undernutrition of patients in epidemic areas and explore the immune mechanism of undernutrition promoting leishmaniasis, BALB/c mouse models with different nutritional imbalances were established, including undernutrition 75%, undernutrition 65% and obesity mouse models.

TLR-2 agonist Pam3CSK4 has no therapeutic effect on visceral leishmaniasis in BALB/c mice and may enhance the pathogenesis of the disease.

Most of the existing Leishmania-related research about TLR-2 agonists was focusing on their role as adjuvants in the vaccine, few studied its therapeutic effect. This paper aims to explore the therapeutic effect of TLR-2 agonist Pam3CSK4 on Leishmania-infected mice and the underlying immune molecular mechanisms. In L.

Screening Novel Vaccine Candidates for by Combining Differential Proteomics and Immunoinformatics Analysis.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar, is the most dangerous form of leishmaniasis. Currently no effective vaccine is available for clinical use. Since the pathogenicity of different strains is inconsistent, the differentially expressed proteins in strains may play an important role as virulence factors in pathogenesis.

Mutation Characteristics and Phylogenetic Analysis of Five Clinical Isolates.

Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease threatening millions of people worldwide. The emergence of antimony-resistant strains have brought difficulties to the treatment and elimination of leishmaniasis. This study performed genome sequencing, phylogenetic analysis and mutation analysis of five clinical isolates, especially the strain L_HCZ isolated in 2016, which shows strong virulence and antimony resistance.

Development of dominant epitope-based vaccines encoding Gp63, Kmp-11 and Amastin against visceral leishmaniasis.

The most dangerous form of leishmaniasis is Visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The elimination of VL depends not only on agent treatments but also on effective vaccines against Leishmania parasites. Epitope-based vaccines composed of alternative short antigenic epitopes have the advantages of MHC epitope easy designing, which has broad application prospects.

Records of three mammal tick species parasitizing an atypical host, the multi-ocellated racerunner lizard, in arid regions of Xinjiang, China.

Background: Ticks are ectoparasites that feed on blood of a broad taxonomical range of terrestrial and flying vertebrates and are distributed across a wide range of environmental settings. To date, the species identity, diversity, and relationships among the ticks on lizards in China have been poorly understood.

Methods: In this study, 30 ticks, collected from the multi-ocellated racerunner (Eremias multiocellata) lizard in the Tarim Basin and adjacent Yanqi Basin of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China, were identified by morphological observation and confirmed by DNA-based techniques.

Vaccine design based on 16 epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) urgently requires an effective vaccine for prevention. In this study, 66 epitopes containing pentapeptides of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the IEDB database were compared with the amino acid sequence of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and 66 potentially immune-related peptides of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were obtained. Based on the single-nucleotide polymorphisms analysis of spike protein of 1218 SARS-CoV-2 isolates, 52 easily mutated sites were identified and used for vaccine epitope screening.

Integrative genomic, proteomic and phenotypic studies of Leishmania donovani strains revealed genetic features associated with virulence and antimony-resistance.

Background: Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Emerging drug resistance of Leishmania species poses threaten to the effective control and elimination programme of this neglected tropical disease.

Methods: In this work, we conducted drug-resistance testing, whole genome resequencing and proteome profiling for a recently reported clinical isolate with supposed drug resistance (HCZ), and two reference sensitive strains (DD8 and 9044) of Leishmania donovani, to explore molecular mechanisms underlying drug resistance in this parasite.

The immunogenicity and protective immunity of multi-epitopes DNA prime-protein boost vaccines encoding Amastin-Kmp-11, Kmp11-Gp63 and Amastin-Gp63 against visceral leishmaniasis.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most fatal form of leishmaniasis if left untreated and 50,000 to 90,000 new cases of VL occur worldwide each year. Although various vaccines had been studied in animal models, none of them was eligible to prevent human from infections. In this study, according to the silico analysis of Leishmania Amastin, Kmp-11 and Gp63 protein, dominant epitope sequences of these proteins were selected and linked to construct dominant multi-epitopes DNA and protein vaccines (Amastin-Kmp-11, Amastin-Gp63 and Kmp-11-Gp63) against VL.

Evaluation of in vitro antileishmanial efficacy of cyclosporin A and its non-immunosuppressive derivative, dihydrocyclosporin A.

Background: New therapeutic drugs are urgently needed against visceral leishmaniasis because current drugs, such as pentavalent antimonials and miltefosine, produce severe side effects and development of resistance. Whether cyclosporine A (CsA) and its derivatives can be used as therapeutic drugs for visceral leishmaniasis has been controversial for many years.

Methods: In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of CsA and its derivative, dihydrocyclosporin A (DHCsA-d), against promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes of Leishmania donovani.

Multi-locus characterization and phylogenetic inference of Leishmania spp. in snakes from Northwest China.

Background: Leishmaniasis caused by protozoan parasite Leishmania is a neglected disease which is endemic in the northwest of China. Reptiles were considered to be the potential reservoir hosts for mammalian Leishmaniasis, and Leishmania had been detected in lizards from the epidemic area in the northwest of China. To date, few studies are focused on the natural infection of snakes with Leishmania.

Direct and Indirect Inhibition Effects of Resveratrol against Tachyzoites .

is one of the most widespread obligatory parasitic protozoa and infects nearly all warm-blooded animals, leading to toxoplasmosis. The therapeutic drugs currently administered, like the combination of pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine, show high rates of toxic side effects, and drug resistance is encountered in some cases. Resveratrol is a natural plant extract with multiple functions, such as antibacterial, anticancer, and antiparasite activities.

DNA prime-protein boost vaccine encoding HLA-A2, HLA-A24 and HLA-DR1 restricted epitopes of CaNA2 against visceral leishmaniasis.

Visceral leishmaniasis is a tropical and neglected disease with an estimated 200 000-400 000 cases and 60 000 deaths worldwide each year. Currently, no clinically valid vaccine is available for this disease. In this study, we formulated DNA and protein vaccines encoding HLA-A2, HLA-A24 and HLA-DR1 restricted epitopes of CaNA2 against visceral leishmaniasis.

The first successful report of the in vitro life cycle of Chinese Leishmania: the in vitro conversion of Leishmania amastigotes has been raised to 94% by testing 216 culture medium compound.

Chinese Leishmania isolate MHOM/CN/90/SC10H2 (L. H2), which was obtained from the spinal cords of patients from the Sichuan province of China, is an uncharacterized, pathogenic species closely related to Leishmania tarentolae. The in vitro transformation rate of L.