Abstract
BackgroundCutaneous leishmaniasis is a tropical disease affecting over one million patients annually and Leishmania (L.) mexicana is one of the major etiological agents in the Americas. Here we established the first experimental infection of L. (L.) mexicana in canids.MethodsBeagle dogs were infected intradermally with culture-derived L. (L.) mexicana. We followed skin ulcer development, histopathological signs, parasite burden and the immune status of the infected dogs.ResultsAll infected dogs developed uniform oval-craterform ulcers similar to those observed in humans, associated with mixed T helper 1/T helper 2 immune responses. Parasites were detected in the healed lesions 15 weeks post-infection. Higher anti-Leishmania IgG levels correlated with larger lesions and high IgG1/IgG2 ratio was associated with some level of splenomegaly.ConclusionsThe canine model described in this work will be of use for further understanding of L. (L.) mexicana immunopathogenensis, and for drug and vaccine development.
Highlights
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a tropical disease affecting over one million patients annually and Leishmania (L.) mexicana is one of the major etiological agents in the Americas
We developed a canine model of cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by experimental infection with L. (L.) mexicana parasites, the main species circulating in Southern Mexico and Central America
Parasitological and immunological aspects of the experimental infection in Beagle dogs, which provide a good model for the future testing of novel drugs or vaccines against cutaneous leishmaniasis, as well as for further studies on the immunopathogenensis of this canine host
Summary
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a tropical disease affecting over one million patients annually and Leishmania (L.) mexicana is one of the major etiological agents in the Americas. The leishmaniases are a group of parasitic disease affecting up to 1.4 millions people annually [1]. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) ranks ninth of infectious neglected-tropical diseases, with an estimated burden of 1.2 million new cases per year, and of 770,000 DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) [1,2,3]. L. (L.) mexicana is one of the major species responsible for CL in the Americas. It can be found in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and as far north as Mexico [1,4,5]
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