Shaden Kamhawi

TL;DR: Infection with the obligate intracellular protozoan Leishmania major (L.m.m.) appears to have evolved to both evade and exploit the innate host response to sand fly bite in order to establish and promote disease.

TL;DR: A novel therapeutic approach to eliminate latency, infection reservoirs, and the risk of reactivation disease is suggested as sterile cure was achieved in IL-10–deficient and IL-4/IL-10 double-deficient mice.

TL;DR: The studies reveal a dramatic exacerbating effect of SGS on lesion development in the dermal site, and a complete abrogation of this effect in mice preexposed to salivary components, the first to suggest that for individuals at risk of vector-borne infections, history of exposure to vector saliva might influence the outcome of Exposure to transmitted parasites.

TL;DR: Results indicate that DTH response against saliva provides most or all of the protective effects of this vaccine and that salivary gland proteins or their cDNAs are viable vaccine targets against leishmaniasis.

TL;DR: Leishmania-sand fly interactions are reviewed in the context of the potential barriers to the complete development of the parasite that exist within the midgut environment of phlebotomine flies and the molecular adaptations that the parasite has evolved that permit the development of transmissible infections to proceed.