Abstract
Parasitic diseases still constitute a major global health problem affecting billions of people around the world. These diseases are capable of becoming chronic and result in high morbidity and mortality. Worldwide, millions of people die each year from parasitic diseases, with the bulk of those deaths resulting from parasitic protozoan infections. Leishmaniasis, which is a disease caused by over 20 species of the protozoan parasite belonging to the genus Leishmania, is an important neglected disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 12 million people are currently infected in about 98 countries and about 2 million new cases occur yearly, resulting in about 50,000 deaths each year. Current treatment methods for leishmaniasis are not very effective and often have significant side effects. In this review, we discussed host immunity to leishmaniasis, various treatment options currently being utilized, and the progress of both immunotherapy and vaccine development strategies used so far in leishmaniasis. We concluded with insights into what the future holds toward the fight against this debilitating parasitic disease.
Highlights
Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that affects humans and animals, is mainly transmitted from one host to another through the bite of an infected phlebotomine sand fly vector
As the promastigotes enter into the blood stream following a sand fly bite, until the amastigotes reside within the macrophages, the tussle between the eradication of parasites and establishment of disease will be somewhat decided by the ability of Leishmania to modulate and/or evade host immune defenses
The efficacy of vaccines produced from antigens of L. braziliensis in combination with a monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) adjuvant was investigated in symptomatic dogs with visceral leishmaniasis
Summary
Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that affects humans and animals, is mainly transmitted from one host to another through the bite of an infected phlebotomine sand fly vector. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), widely regarded as the most common form of the disease, is caused by L. major, L. mexicana, and L. tropica This form of the disease is characterized by development of skin lesions (papules and ulcers) at the site of the sand fly bite, and the disease is usually self-resolving [2]. Following a blood meal on an infected host, the sand fly ingests the released amastigotes, and these transform back into flagellated spindle-shaped promastigotes within the fly midgut, completing the parasite’s life cycle [10,11,12]. In addition to VL, amphotericin B has been reported to be a viable treatment option for cutaneous leishmaniasis [20] Another drug, miltefosine, targets the promastigote and amastigote stages of the parasite and is effective against both VL and CL [21,22]. There is a growing global effort towards developing a potent multispecies Leishmania vaccine [24], and this will largely depend on our ability to fully understand the complex interaction between Leishmania and its mammalian host’s immune system
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