Introduction:Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar, is a diffuse protozoan infection caused by Leishmania donovani complex. VL is principally caused by L. donovani and L. infantum (synonym L. chagasi in South America). The parasite targets the reticulo-endothelial system, with penetration of the spleen, liver, bone marrow and lymph nodes lead to organomegaly and pancytopenia. Organic pentavalent antimonials have been the first-line drugs for the therapy of leishmaniasis for the latest six decades, and clinical resistance to these drugs has emerged as a primary obstacle to successful treatment and control. Miltefosine has been shown to be higher or equivalent to presently approved essential medicines for at least one of viscer

Leishmaniosis is a tropical neglected parasitic disease that is endemic in many countries, including Middle East, with no existing effective vaccines. The bite of female sand-fly transmits the causative agent, Leishmania spp., to humans. High toxicity, resistance and treatment failure of the available chemotherapy against visceral leishmaniosis demands the investigation of new anti-leishmanial compounds. Lupeol is a form of triterpene isolated from several medicinal plants and possesses an antimicrobial property. In this study, cytotoxic effect of lupeol was screened against the mammalian amastigotes form and insect promastigote form of Leishmania donovani, following three cycles of incubation at different concentrations by MTT assay. Resul

Visceral leishmaniosis is one of the most fatal old-world neglected disease with estimated 90 thousand worldwide cases emerge each year. In Iraq, the cutaneous and visceral form are endemic but available chemotherapies are either toxic with diverse side effects, expensive available drugs or parasite …

Leishmania is auxotroph to folic acid,antifolates drug inhibit the synthesis and conversion of folate derivatives. In this study, cytotoxic effect of methotrexate was investigated on the procyclic promastigotes proliferation of L. donovani. The results showed a significant (p ≥ 0.05) difference in growth of treated groups at high concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 125.5) μM after 24, 48 hrs., while at 72 hrs. significant difference was observed at all concentration. The IC50 values was measurable after 24, 48 and 72 hrs. and it was 174.238, 52.283 and 109.175 μM, respectively. The present study showed the cytotoxic effect of methotrexate on the proliferation of promastigotes of the visceral type of Leishmania.

Leishmaniasis is endemic ofIraq in both cutaneous and visceral form. The available tools for diagnosis and detection of Leishmaniaare nonspecific and may interfere with other species. In this study, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has been used to identify Iraqi isolate of visceral leishmaniasis (MHOM/ IQ/2005/MRU15) which a previously diagnosed by classical serological tests. PCR amplificationwas carried out using species-specific primers of Leishmania donovani. Four primer pairs of mini-circle DNA and ITS-1 were used.13A/13B, which is used to identify Leishmaniaas a genus, NM12, LITSR/L5.8S and BHUL18S, were used to detect the sub species of L. donovani.The result ofPCR

Visceral leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease on the rise in different regions of Iraq, especially in areas with poor hygiene and among refugee populations. The effectiveness of existing chemotherapy for leishmaniasis is constrained by its high toxicity, cost, and the development of drug resistance. The current research examined various concentrations (ranging from 125 to 1000 μM) of lupeol to evaluate its ability to boost the generation of nitric oxide, which has anti-leishmanial properties, in an ex-vivo macrophage model. Griess assay was used to detect the nitric oxide (NO) production in Leishmania donovani infected U937 cell-line macrophages along 24 and 48 hours post treated. The nitric oxide concentration was signifi

This study has evaluated the humoral immune response in Golden Hamsters experimentally infected with Leishmania donovani along (4) times of follow up (15, 30, 60, 90) days after infection. Indirect haemagglutination test was used to determine the antibody titer through the various stages of the study. Also the progress of the infection was studied depending on some of the visceral changes caused by the parasite, like weight of liver, length & weight of spleen & the count of Leishmania parasites in spleen were measured. Results has shown that there was an increase in antibody titer & the maximum value was recorded at the 4th day of follow up (90 days after infection) as well as that there was an increase in the length of the spleen, weight

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of LPS in immune response through detecting some immune markers by IHC technique in the liver of mice infected with Leishmania donovani (VL). Methods: Three groups of eighteen mice were created: the first was control negative (non-infected), the second was control positive (infected with 2X107 promastigotes of Leishmania donovani), and the third group was infected with 2X107 promastigotes of Leishmania donovani and treated with 40 ng/ml of LPS. The treatment was given orally twice daily for one month. Mice were dissected, and the liver separated for an immunohistochemistry study for the markers (BCL-2, Caspase-3, CD3, CTLA-4). Results: The results showed there was significant elevatio

With the World Health Organization reporting over 30,000 deaths and 200,000 to 400,000 new cases annually, visceral leishmaniasis is a serious disease affecting some of the world's poorest people. As drug resistance continues to rise, there is a huge unmet need to improve treatment. Miltefosine remains one of the main treatments for leishmaniasis, yet its mode of action (MoA) is still unknown. Understanding the MoA of this drug and parasite response to treatment could help pave the way for new and more successful treatments for leishmaniasis. A novel method has been devised to study the metabolome and lipidome ofLeishmania donovaniaxenic amastigotes treated with miltefosi