In 1965, Ralph Lainson left London for Brazil with a three-year Wellcome Trust grant. He never came back. What was it about tropical Brazil that appealed to the young man? The parasites, of course.
Apr 12, 2011
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A chance encounter in northern Australia with a previously undocumented parasite has allowed scientists to join important evolutionary dots, highlighting the need for closer monitoring of exotic and neglected tropical diseases.
Jan 13, 2017
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Parasites that ulcerate the skin, can disfigure the face, and may fatally mutilate its victim's internal organs are creeping closer to the southern edges of the United States.
Sep 13, 2017
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(Medical Xpress) -- A study published yesterday shows that a drug called fexinidazole could potentially be used to treat visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that kills 50 000 to 60 000 people a year in Africa, ...
Feb 2, 2012
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An international collaborative of researchers has identified a mechanism that allows the leishmania parasite, which causes leishmaniasis, to evade the immune system and thereby produce infection. The study, published in Immunity, ...
Oct 12, 2016
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(Medical Xpress)—Every year, visceral leishmaniasis infects about 500,000 people and kills about 41,000. Most deaths occur in India's Bihar region, where there is a high level of resistance to the antimony compounds used ...
The Leishmania parasite, which causes the human disease leishmaniasis, acts as a probiotic in the insect that transmits it to humans, protecting them from bacterial disease. Findings published in the open access journal Parasites ...
Jul 22, 2014
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After more than two decades of research, scientists are testing the first vaccine against the deadliest form of a disease that infects more than 12 million people worldwide.
Apr 23, 2012
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Scientists—including a geneticist at The University of Western Australia—are a step closer to developing a vaccine against a fatally infectious parasite carried in the bite of sandflies.
Jan 8, 2013
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Scientists have established the effectiveness of vaccines they developed to prevent the disfiguring skin disease leishmaniasis in animal studies, and Phase 1 human trial planning is in motion for the most promising candidate.
Aug 31, 2023
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Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites that belong to the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the bite of certain species of sand fly (subfamily Phlebotominae). Although the majority of the literature mentions only one genus transmitting Leishmania to humans (Lutzomyia) in the Americas, a 2003 study by Galati suggested a new classification for the New World sand flies, elevating several subgenera to the genus level. Elsewhere in the world, the genus Phlebotomus is considered the vector of leishmaniasis.
Most forms of the disease are transmissible only from animals (zoonosis), but some can be spread between humans. Human infection is caused by about 21 of 30 species that infect mammals. These include the L. donovani complex with three species (L. donovani, L. infantum, and L. chagasi); the L. mexicana complex with four main species (L. mexicana, L. amazonensis, and L. venezuelensis); L. tropica; L. major; L. aethiopica; and the subgenus Viannia with four main species (L. (V.) braziliensis, L. (V.) guyanensis, L. (V.) panamensis, and L. (V.) peruviana). The different species are morphologically indistinguishable, but they can be differentiated by isoenzyme analysis, DNA sequence analysis, or monoclonal antibodies.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is the most common form of leishmaniasis. Visceral leishmaniasis is a severe form in which the parasites have migrated to the vital organs.
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