Leishmania infantum explained

Leishmania infantum is the causative agent of infantile visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean region and in Latin America, where it has been called Leishmania chagasi.^{[1] [2]} It is also an unusual cause of cutaneous leishmaniasis,^[3] which is normally caused by specific lineages (or zymodemes). Wild canids and domestic dogs are the natural reservoir of this organism.^[4] The sandfly species Lutzomyia longipalpis serves as the primary vector for the transmission of the disease.^[5]

Leishmania infantum is closely related to Leishmania donovani, and some authors believe that these two species are so close as to actually be subspecies of each other;^[6] however, phylogenetic analyses can easily distinguish between the two groups despite no difference in morphology in the species complex. Some isolates formerly labelled L. donovani may be actually L. infantum.^{[1] [7]}

Model system for studies of DNA repair

Comparative bioinformatic analyses showed that the size of the L. infantum BRCA2 protein is approximately three times smaller (125 kD) than its human counterpart. Furthermore, analyses revealed that LiBRCA2 possesses key features of the BRCA2 family. The smaller size of the Leishmania BRCA2 DNA repair protein has been exploited to better understand its function in homologous recombination and its interaction with the LiRAD51 recombinase.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Lukeš J, etal . Evolutionary and geographical history of the Leishmania donovani complex with a revision of current taxonomy . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 104 . 22 . 2007 . 17517634 . 9375–80 . 1890502 . 10.1073/pnas.0703678104. 2007PNAS..104.9375L . free .
2. 10.1016/S0169-4758(00)01637-9 . Maurício IL, Stothard JR, Miles MA . The strange case of Leishmania chagasi . Parasitol. Today (Regul. Ed.) . 16 . 5 . 188–9 . May 2000 . 10782075.
3. BenSaid M, Guerbouj S, Saghrouni F, etal . Occurrence of Leishmania infantum cutaneous leishmaniasis in central Tunisia . Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene . 2006 . 100 . 6 . 521–6 . 10.1016/j.trstmh.2005.08.012 . 16356518 .
4. Hide . Mallorie . Michel . Gregory . Legueult . Kevin . Pin . Raphaelle . Leonard . Susana . Simon . Loïc . Bañuls . Anne-Laure . Delaunay . Pascal . Marty . Pierre . Pomares . Christelle . Asymptomatic Leishmania infantum infection in dogs and dog owners in an endemic area in southeast France . Parasite . 31 . 2024 . 1776-1042 . 38530209 . 10964848 . 10.1051/parasite/2024019 . 16.
5. Alexander . Bruce . Lopes de Carvalho . Renata . McCallum . Hamish . Pereira . Marcos Horácio . Role of the Domestic Chicken (Gallus gallus)in the Epidemiology of Urban Visceral Leishmaniasis in Brazil . Emerging Infectious Diseases . 8 . 12 . 1480–5 . December 2002 . 10.3201/eid0812.010485 . 12498667 . 2738513.
6. 10.1016/0035-9203(86)90320-2 . Le Blancq SM, Peters W . Leishmania in the Old World: 4. The distribution of L. donovani sensu lato zymodemes . Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. . 80 . 3 . 367–77 . 1986 . 3798531.
7. Kuhls K, Mauricio IL, Pratlong F, Presber W, Schönian G . Analysis of ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer sequences of the Leishmania donovani complex . Microbes Infect. . 7 . 11–12 . 1224–34 . 2005 . 16002315 . 10.1016/j.micinf.2005.04.009. free .
8. Genois MM, Mukherjee A, Ubeda JM, Buisson R, Paquet E, Roy G, Plourde M, Coulombe Y, Ouellette M, Masson JY . Interactions between BRCA2 and RAD51 for promoting homologous recombination in Leishmania infantum . Nucleic Acids Res. . 40 . 14 . 6570–84 . August 2012 . 22505581 . 3413117 . 10.1093/nar/gks306 .