The past, present, and future of Leishmania genomics and transcriptomics

Abstract

HighlightsGenomic and transcriptomic technologies are changing Leishmania research.Research into new control strategies provides insights into the vector–parasite–host triangle.Pathways of infection and disease in human and canine leishmaniases must be clarified.

Assessment of Protection Induced by DNA and Live Vaccine Encoding Leishmania MHC Class I Restricted Epitopes against L. major Challenge in Balb/c Mice Model

“…However, due to ample evidence showing vaccine feasibility, subunit and live attenuated vaccines are still under massive investigations, but both demand more efforts. Recent advancements in computational immunology (immunoinformatics) and also full genome sequence availability from different species of Leishmania has introduced a new concept of "genome-based-vaccines" in "reverse vaccinology" era versus "conventional vaccinology" [5][6][7]. This concept will hopefully revolutionize both subunit and live attenuated Leishmania vaccine through genome mining for new antigens (new subunit candidates) and targeted gene manipulations respectively.…”

Disease: A Hitherto Unexplored Constraint on the Spread of Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) in Pre-Columbian South America

“…L. amazonensis is known to have a very wide range of hosts, including marsupials, lesser anteaters (Tamandua tetradactyla), rodents, bats, spider monkeys (Ateles paniscus), and carnivores (including crab-eating foxes), while the principal (perhaps only) host of E. colombiensis is Hoffman's twotoed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) (Roque and Jansen 2014). As with the other diseases I have discussed, this wide range of hosts indicates that visceral leishmaniasis resulting from infection by these two parasites-and the cutaneous form of the same disease following infection by L. braziliensis, L. guyanensis, L. mexicana, L. panamensis, L. peruviana, and L. pifanoi (Cantacessi et al 2015)-was established in Neotropical America long before dogs entered the region (Steverding 2017).…”

“…(Cantacessi et al 2015;Dantas-Torres and Otranto 2014). Some must have infected people in pre-Columbian times based on osteological (Enciso et al 2001), immunological (Frías et al 2013), and other palaeopathological data (Costa Junqueira et al 2009;Marsteller et al 2011), the recovery of ceramics showing human faces disfigured by what looks like mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (which is restricted to Latin America), and sixteenth-century Spanish descriptions of the disease, though comparable evidence of the almost always fatal visceral form is understandably lacking (Lainson 2012).…”

“…L. amazonensis occurs in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, French Guiana, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela and has been responsible for cases of visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil (Tolezano et al 2007). A related taxon, Endotrypanum colombiensis (formerly L. colombiensis; Espinosa et al 2016), which has produced cases in Venezuela, has a more restricted distribution there and in Colombia and Panama (Cantacessi et al 2015), though it probably also extends into the forests of Brazil and the Peruvian lowlands (Lainson 2012, p. 25). L. amazonensis is known to have a very wide range of hosts, including marsupials, lesser anteaters (Tamandua tetradactyla), rodents, bats, spider monkeys (Ateles paniscus), and carnivores (including crab-eating foxes), while the principal (perhaps only) host of E. colombiensis is Hoffman's twotoed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) (Roque and Jansen 2014).…”

Comparative genomics of Tunisian Leishmania major isolates causing human cutaneous leishmaniasis with contrasting clinical severity

“…Since the completion of the first Leishmania genome (Ivens et al, 2005), and the subsequent availability of many other annotated or draft Leishmania genomes, omics technologies have participated to the understanding of Leishmania biology (Cantacessi et al, 2015), easing the identification of variants not previously detected by multilocus typing such as chromosome somy, gene dosage and SNPs within i) clinical isolates of the same species e.g., L. donovani (Downing et al, 2011), ii) closely related species of the same complex (Valdivia et al, 2015) or iii) between different species and strains (Rogers et al, 2011). It seems that these parasites have a remarkable ability to adapt to environmental changes through their genome plasticity, highlighting for instance a capacity to test for the essentiality of genes (Cruz et al, 1993), and giving novel routes to the molecular understanding of resistance to drugs (Imamura et al, 2016; Leprohon et al, 2009).…”