LeishMANIAdb: a comparative resource forLeishmaniaproteins

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a detrimental disease causing serious changes in quality of life and in some forms death. The disease is spread by the pathogen Leishmania transmitted by sandfly vectors and their primary hosts are vertebrates (including humans). The pathogen penetrates host cells and secretes proteins (the secretome) to repurpose them for pathogen growth and to rewire cell signaling via host-pathogen Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs). Here we present LeishMANIAdb, a database specifically designed to understand how Leishmania virulence factors may interfere with host proteins. Since the complete and precise secretome of different Leishmania species is still incomplete, we collected various experimental evidence and computational predictions that may indicate protein secretion, so users can inspect different proteins and see all information unified in a user-friendly web resource. In addition to the secretome, we manually annotated the localization/function of hundreds of transmembrane (TM) Leishmania proteins and included annotations of host-pathogen interactions from experiments. We also enriched proteins with structural and functional predictions that can open prospects to understand the molecular mechanisms of infection. Our database, available at http://leishmaniadb.ttk.hu/ may provide novel insights into host-pathogen interactions and help to identify new molecular targets for this neglected disease.