Leishmania

species and hosts

L.donovani - human blood parasite responsible for visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar, the most severe form of leishmaniasis.

L.major - is associated with the disease zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (also known as Aleppo boil, Baghdad boil, Bay sore, Biskra button, Chiclero ulcer, Delhi boil, Kandahar sore, Lahore sore, Oriental sore, Pian bois, and Uta).^[1] L. major is an intracellular pathogen which infects the macrophages and dendritic cells of the immune system.^[2]Though Leishmania species are found on every continent aside from Antarctica, Leishmania major is found only in the Eastern Hemisphere, specifically in Northern Africa,^[3] the Middle East, Northwestern China, and Northwestern India.

Hosts: Meriones unguiculatus, other Meriones and jirds, and other rodents are common hosts. Dogs,^[10][11]: 2  Mustela nivalis,^[10] Atelerix algirus,^[10] and Paraechinus aethiopicus^[10] are rare hosts. Cattle^[12] are also commonly infected.^[13] Mice are natural hosts.^[14] Transmission between mice is via Phlebotomus papatasi.^[14]

L.infantum - causative agent of infantile visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean region^[1]and in Latin America, where it has been called Leishmania chagasi.

Hosts: Wild canids and domestic dogs are the natural reservoir of this organism.

Genome

https://veupathdb.org

Euglenozoa/Trypanosomatida/Leishmania

Population at Risk

350mio

Forms of the parasite

Part of the life cycle is spent in the gut of the sandfly vector, where the parasite assumes the flagellated promastigote form, while the remainder of its life cycle is completed in vertebrate tissues, whereonly the non-flagellated amastigote form is found. Both trypanosomes and Leishmania must undergo several stages of adaptation to survive in the gut of the insect vector as well as the vertebrate host. Therefore, there must be a tight control of gene expression in these parasites enabling them to survive under different conditions.