Leishmania mexicana
From DrugPedia: A Wikipedia for Drug discovery
Leishmania mexicana
Leishmania mexicana is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that causes a less dangerous form of leishmeniasis. Given its name, this parasitic form occurs in South and Central America.
| Domain | Eukaryota |
|---|---|
| (unranked) | Excavata |
| Phylum | Euglenozoa |
| Class | Kinetoplastida |
| Order | Trypanosomatida |
| Genus | Leishmania |
| Species | L. mexicana |
| Binomial | Leishmania mexicana |
Contents |
[edit] Surface Characteristics
Cell surface LPG contains [PO4-->6Gal(β1-->4)Man(α1)] phosphosaccharide repeats linked to a conserved phosphosaccharide core and a conserved lyso alkylphosphatidylinositol residue. In contrast to L. donovani LPG, which exclusively contains the phosphodisaccharide repeats
[edit] Transmission
Infection of L. mexicana occurs when an individual is bitten by an infected sand fly that injects the infective promastigotes, which are carried in the proboscis, directly in the skin.
[edit] Pathogenic Activity
L. mexicana has the ability to cause both a cutaneous and a diffused cutaneous type of infection. The cutaneous type manifests itself in the form of ulcers at the bite site, here the amastigotes do not spread and the ulcers become visible either a few days or several months after the initial bite, these ulcers heal spontaneously. The diffused cutaneous type manifests itself when the amastigote spreads cutaneously in those with defective T-cell immunity. This type of infection responds very poorly to drugs and therefore causes sores or ulcers all over body.
