Claudio Meneses

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that gut microbes from the sand fly are egested into host skin alongside Leishmania parasites, indicating that both gut microbiota and IL-1β are important for the establishment of Leishmaniasis infections.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that a vaccine against sand fly salivary protein can protect nonhuman primate from leishmania infection and PdSP15 sequence and structure show no homology to mammalian proteins, further demonstrating its potential as a component of a vaccine for human leishmaniasis.

TL;DR: It is shown that ingestion of a second uninfected blood meal by Leishmania-infected sand flies triggers dedifferentiation of metacyclic promastigotes to a replicative form, termed the retroleptomonad promastsigote, which amplifies parasite numbers in the flies.

TL;DR: It is suggested that the sand fly midgut microbiome is a critical factor for Leishmania growth and differentiation to its infective state prior to disease transmission, and the possibility that impairing the microbial composition within the vector might represent a novel approach to control of vector-borne diseases.

TL;DR: Results demonstrate that Ldp27 is an important component of an active COX complex enhancing oxidative phosphorylation specifically in infectious metacyclics and amastigotes and promoting parasite survival in the host.