LEISHMANIA INFECTIONS: A CELL BIOLOGY CENTRED VIEW FROM AN IMMUNOLOGY AND VACCINOLOGY PERSPECTIVE

摘要

Leishmania parasites are the causative agents of cutaneous, mucocutaneous to visceral disease, transmitted by the sand fly vectors to their mammalian hosts. In the mammalian host they are taken up by professional phagocytes via the phagocytic pathway rather than by actively invading. Moreover, they have developed several strategies to evade the host immune response leading to non healing chronic disease. Herein, we discuss several aspects of Leishmania infection with emphasis on a cell biologists view an organism within another organsim which first accesses a niche and then establishes and intracellular habitat, how this be subject to modulation by the immune response and whether it may have implications for vaccine development.