Article

Intra-specific variability of virulence in Leishmania infantum zymodeme MON-1 strains.

Unidade de Leishmanioses, Centro de Malária e outras Doenças Tropicais, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Rua da Junqueira 96, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal.
Comparative Immunology Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (impact factor: 2.34). 02/2007; 30(1):41-53. DOI:10.1016/j.cimid.2006.10.001 pp.41-53
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT This study aims to characterize the intra-specific variability of virulence in Leishmania infantum zymodeme MON-1 strains isolated from dogs and immunocompetent and immunosuppressed patients through the evaluation of growth pattern, infective ability and immunopathogenicity. Two of the strains, classified as the most virulent, presented higher levels of macrophage infection, increased promastigote replication in culture medium and as well as amastigote multiplication within macrophages. These strains caused the most pathogenic infection inducing splenomegalia and maximum parasite loads in spleen and liver of BALB/c mice. The other strains exhibited either low virulence, with reduced infective capability and low replication levels, or an intermediate virulent phenotype showing mixed features similar to low and high virulent phenotypes. A correlation between the infectivity, growth dynamics and pathogenicity of each strain and the humoral and cellular immune response was demonstrated. Strains with accentuated virulent phenotype induced higher levels of anti-Leishmania IgG1 antibodies and TGF-beta but reduced production of IFN-gamma. Virulence phenotype seems to be a characteristic of each strain regardless of the host (dog or human) from which it was firstly isolated.

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    Article: Characterization of the biology and infectivity of Leishmania infantum viscerotropic and dermotropic strains isolated from HIV+ and HIV- patients in the murine model of visceral leishmaniasis.
    Joana Cunha, Eugenia Carrillo, Carmen Sánchez, Israel Cruz, Javier Moreno, Anabela Cordeiro-da-Silva
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    ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Leishmaniasis is a group of diseases with a variety of clinical manifestations. The form of the disease is highly dependent on the infective Leishmania species and the immunological status of the host. The infectivity of the parasite strain also plays an important role in the progression of the infection. The aim of this work is to understand the influence of the natural infectivity of Leishmania strains in the outcome of visceral leishmaniasis. METHODS: In this study we have characterized four strains of L. infantum in terms of molecular typing, in vitro cultivation and differentiation. Two strains were isolated from HIV+ patients with visceral leishmaniasis (Bibiano and E390M), one strain was isolated from a cutaneous lesion in an immunocompetent patient (HL) and another internal reference strain causative of visceral leishmaniasis (ST) also from an immunocompetent patient was used for comparison. For this objective, we have compared their virulence by in vitro and in vivo infectivity in a murine model of visceral leishmaniasis. RESULTS: Molecular typing unraveled a new k26 sequence attributed to MON-284 zymodeme and allowed the generation of a molecular signature for the identification of each strain. In vitro cultivation enabled the production of promastigotes with comparable growth curves and metacyclogenesis development. The HL strain was the most infective, showing the highest parasite loads in vitro that were corroborated with the in vivo assays, 6 weeks post-infection in BALB/c mice. The two strains isolated from HIV+ patients, both belonging to two different zymodemes, revealed different kinetics of infection. CONCLUSION: Differences in in vitro and in vivo infectivity found in the murine model were then attributed to intrinsic characteristics of each strain. This work is supported by other studies that present the parasite's inherent features as factors for the multiplicity of clinical manifestations and severity of leishmaniasis.
    Parasites & Vectors 04/2013; 6(1):122. · 2.94 Impact Factor
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Keywords

accentuated virulent phenotype induced higher levels
 
anti-Leishmania IgG1 antibodies
 
BALB/c mice
 
cellular immune response
 
dogs
 
growth dynamics
 
immunopathogenicity
 
infective capability
 
intermediate virulent phenotype
 
intra-specific variability
 
Leishmania infantum zymodeme MON-1 strains
 
low replication levels
 
low virulence
 
macrophage infection
 
mixed features
 
pathogenic infection inducing splenomegalia
 
promastigote replication
 
strains exhibited
 
Virulence phenotype
 
virulent phenotypes