Abstract
Leishmania promastigotes express several prominent glycoconjugates, either secreted or anchored to the parasite surface. Of these lipophosphoglycan (LPG) is the most abundant, and along with other phosphoglycan-bearing molecules, plays important roles in parasite infectivity and pathogenesis in both the sand fly and the mammalian host. Besides its contribution for parasite survival in the sand fly vector, LPG is important for modulation the host immune responses to favor the establishment of mammalian infection. This review will summarize the current knowledge regarding the role of LPG in Leishmania infectivity, focusing on the interaction of LPG and innate immune cells and in the subversion of mammalian functions by this molecule.
Highlights
Leishmania and LipophosphoglycanLeishmaniasis is caused by infection with protozoan parasites of the Trypanosomatid genus Leishmania
The parasites encounter a variety of cell types including neutrophils, Langerhans and dendritic cells, keratinocytes, and tissue macrophages, all of which have been proposed to serve as the “first contact” host cell
Seminal studies by Bates and collaborators have suggested that the PG repeats borne on PPGs within the plug play key roles in exacerbating the subsequent infections in L. mexicana, thereby implicating PGs synthesized and secreted by Leishmania in the fly as important immunomodulators of the host response [24, 25]
Summary
Leishmaniasis is caused by infection with protozoan parasites of the Trypanosomatid genus Leishmania. LPG plays an important role for parasite survival inside sand fly vector and for macrophage infection, as discussed below. Several findings have suggested that LPG plays an important role in attachment of promastigotes in midgut in some species or strains such as the L. major Friedlin line [14,15,16], which binds to the sand fly midgut lectin PpGalec [17]. Seminal studies by Bates and collaborators have suggested that the PG repeats borne on PPGs within the plug play key roles in exacerbating the subsequent infections in L. mexicana, thereby implicating PGs synthesized and secreted by Leishmania in the fly as important immunomodulators of the host response [24, 25]. We summarize the current information regarding the role of LPG for subversion of mammalian protective responses by the parasite, and the recognition of parasite LPG by the mammalian innate immune cells
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