Leishmania Vaccines: the Current Situation with Its Promising Aspect for the Future

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a serious parasitic disease caused by Leishmania spp. transmitted through sandfly bites. This disease is a major public health concern worldwide. It can occur in 3 different clinical forms: cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral Leishmaniasis (CL, MCL, and VL, respectively), caused by different Leishmania spp. Currently, licensed vaccines are unavailable for the treatment of human Leishmaniasis. The treatment and prevention of this disease rely mainly on chemotherapeutics, which are highly toxic and have an increasing resistance problem. The development of a safe, effective, and affordable vaccine for all forms of vector-borne disease is urgently needed to block transmission of the parasite between the host and vector. Immunological mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Leishmaniasis are complex. IL-12-driven Th1-type immune response plays a crucial role in host protection. The essential purpose of vaccination is to establish a protective immune response. To date, numerous vaccine studies have been conducted using live/attenuated/killed parasites, fractionated parasites, subunits, recombinant or DNA technology, delivery systems, and chimeric peptides. Most of these studies were limited to animals. In addition, standardization has not been achieved in these studies due to the differences in the virulence dynamics of the Leishmania spp. and the feasibility of the adjuvants. More studies are needed to develop a safe and effective vaccine, which is the most promising approach against Leishmania infection.

Binding predictions and molecular docking as a computational approach to identify human T CD4 epitopes from Leishmania proteins

“…Leishmania spp in addition, survives and multiplicate inside macrophages, the immune cell that is design to eliminate it. Several attempts have been made for decades, using rst, second, and third vaccine generation, however, none of them have been licensed for use in humans [31].…”

Dual Antitubercular and Antileishmanial Profiles of Quinoxaline Di-N-Oxides Containing an Amino Acidic Side Chain

“…13 C NMR (63 MHz, CDCl 3 ) δ: 172.7, 162.8, 160.4, 160.0, 133.9, 130.8, 126.0, 120.6, 119.9, 114.9, 114.5, 55. 5 To a stirred solution of the corresponding arylmethylene-2,5-piperazinedione 1 (6 mmol) in alcohol solution (250 mL) was added a 5M HCl aqueous solution (25 mL). The reaction was refluxed for 16 h. When no starting material was evident by TLC, the solvent was distilled under vacuum to dryness, and the residue was dissolved in chloroform and filtered.…”

“…Currently, there are no approved vaccines for human leishmaniasis [ 5 ], and the primary approach to combating the disease is focused on chemotherapy. The present arsenal of drugs available against leishmaniasis is rather small, and moreover, these drugs are limited by disadvantages such as the requirement for prolonged treatments, the need for parenteral routes of administration, high toxicity in many cases and the fact that they are becoming increasingly ineffective due to the appearance of resistant forms of the parasite [ 6 ].…”

Assessment of autophagy inLeishmaniaparasites

“…Despite the myriad of research aimed at understanding interactions between the host cells and Leishmania parasites, there is still no approved vaccine against the disease because this complex interaction is poorly understood. Therefore, drug treatment remains the only viable option to control the disease, but the current treatment modalities are plagued with various challenges (23, 24). A clear understanding of the parasite’s cellular biologic processes and molecules that influence and/or drive protective responses against the host could advance the development of novel therapeutic strategies against leishmaniasis (25, 26).…”