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Parasite life cycle
Proteome/Proteomics

Leishmaniasis.

Leishmaniasis is a debilitating and potentially fatal disease that is endemic in many parts of the world. The World Health Organization estimates that 30 million people suffer from the disease, and each year a further 200,000 people become infected. The disease is caused by various species of Leishmania, which are protozoan parasites which have a complex life cycle that alternates between an insect vector, and the human host.

This split life cycle leaves the parasite vulnerable at several moments. For example, although a cure for the Leishmaniasis is lengthy and beyond the financial means of many sufferers, the spread of the disease may be cheaply and effectively controlled by insecticides which kill the sand-fly vector. The parasite is also vulnerable at other moments during the life cycle, since like all intracellular parasites, the Leishmania has to invade the host cell in order to replicate. This involves a series of specific physical changes in the parasite, and if we can understand how this happens, we can start to investigate ways to prevent it. If we can achieve this for Leishmania, then we might be able to do the same for other intracellular parasites such as Plasmodium (which causes malaria) and Trypanasomes (which cause various diseases, including African sleeping sickness).

The invasion of the cell involves contact between the parasite and the host cell membranes. In the case of Leishmania, the host is a common cell found in the human body called a macrophage. The precise composition of the parasite and host cell membranes is obviouly important in this event, and specific interactions are known to occur. However, the details as to which molecules are involved, and as to how they work have yet to be understood, and is the focus of the research project in the laboratory.