Leishmania

5. How does Leishmania tropica evade the immune system? Leishmania tropica surface molecule glycoprotein 63 (gp36) is found throughout the parasite surface and has the potential to degrade immunoglobulins, complement factors, and lysosomal proteins (Olivier et al. 2005). Gp36 can cleave C3b into an inactivated form and C3bi will appear on the surface of the membrane and hinders the formation of C5 convertase (Gupta et al. 2013). It is also able to use C3bi to bind to complement receptor 3 (CR3); which is advantageous to the as binding restricts the production of IL-12, which thus limits the Th1 response and it allows the amastigote parasite to enter the macrophage without detection (Marth and Kelsall 1997, Gupta et al. 2013). Macrophages are the main cell targeted for survival and proliferation of L. Tropica as it replicates in the…

emerging much faster than the scientific community as a whole could understand and accept them. Desowitz then goes into the frustration the people were dealing with Kala azar. The first problem was how the disease even migrated or spread over continents and eventually to the Indian continent. The health officials were unfamiliar with this disease, often mistaking it with malaria. With no vaccine and no idea of any control mechanisms, it took many infected patients and a few years for them to…

It is also evident that the morphological components of apoptosis has been conserved throughout the evolution of apoptosis by genetic control. Despite this, many discoveries have found some indistinguishable PCD features between mammalian cells and unicellular cells. More specifically, the unicellular eukaryote L. major clearly expresses many features that can also be inspected in mammalian cells. Leishmania major is a protozoan parasite from an ancient phylogenetic branch of unicellular…

antagonist. Thus it can be seen that the binding site of competitive antagonists is reversible. Golan et al. (2012) indicated that the existence of competitive antagonists moves the dose-response curve of agonist to the rightward. From this curve, competitive antagonists drop the potency of agonist but still remain the efficacy. The fact is an opioid receptor antagonist, it has no intrinsic activity, but competitively antagonizes various opioid receptors. It has a strong affinity, especially for…

hydrolase or IPCase activity) and sphingomyelin (the SMase activity). SMase activity is required for amastigote proliferation in mammals while the IPCase activity is important for promastigote survival and acid tolerance. Deletion of ISCL leads to a complete loss of SMase and IPCase activity. (Figure 1a) In order to derive a system’s level understanding of the role of ISCL in the sphingolipid metabolism, we reconstructed the entire sphingolipid metabolism of L.major. (Figure 1b) Simulation…

future possibilities of preventative measures and treatment options for the disease. There is a substantial basis of evidence suggesting that various antipsychotic medications, used in the treatment of schizophrenia, also produce antiprotozoal effects. Chlorpromazine (marketed as Thorazine) and other phenothiazines are utilized in the treatment of schizophrenia due to their inherent dopamine antagonism capacities. The growth of various protozoans is inhibited by such phenothiazines, including…

the leaf. Anti-parasite activity due to chemicals produced by these plants (whole leaf swallowing) was ruled out. Short hairs located on the leaves appear to be responsible for the eviction of the parasites. Chimpanzees select these plant species for their physical, roughness properties, resulting in the physical purging action of adult parasites by the leaves. Thus whole leaf swallowing is one self-medication strategy used by chimpanzees against gastrointestinal parasites. Bitter leaf-chewing…