caa a22 4500 445340533 CHVBK 20180317142811.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00436-011-2325-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00436-011-2325-4 Effect of A2 gene on infectivity of the nonpathogenic parasite Leishmania tarentolae [Elektronische Daten] [Amir Mizbani, Yasaman Taslimi, Farnaz Zahedifard, Tahereh Taheri, Sima Rafati] Several species of protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania are pathogenic to mammals and cause a wide spectrum of pathologies in human. However, the genus includes some species which infect reptiles. Leishmania tarentolae is a lizard pathogen absolutely nonpathogenic to mammals. Recent studies have shown that among some major virulence factors, A2 is absent in this species. First identified as an amastigote-specific gene in Leishmania donovani, A2 has been proved to play a major role in parasite virulence and visceralization capability. In this study, we have transfected A2 episomally into L. tarentolae and evaluated its effect on infectivity and survival of the parasites, in vitro and in vivo. During infection of in vitro-cultured intraperitoneal macrophages of BALB/c mice, A2-expressing L. tarentolae parasites demonstrated significantly higher level of infectivity in days3 and 4 post-infection in comparison with the wild-type strain as control. Furthermore, in vivo infection showed that A2 has significantly increased the ability of L. tarentolae to survive in the liver of BALB/c mice. Altogether, our results show that A2 is functional in L. tarentolae, although through an unknown mechanism, and loss of A2 has been one of the factors partly contributing to the loss of virulence of L. tarentolae. Springer-Verlag, 2011 Mizbani Amir Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut Taslimi Yasaman Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut Zahedifard Farnaz Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut Taheri Tahereh Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut Rafati Sima Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut Parasitology Research Springer-Verlag 109/3(2011-09-01), 793-799 0932-0113 109:3<793 2011 109 436 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-011-2325-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-011-2325-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Mizbani Amir Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Taslimi Yasaman Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Zahedifard Farnaz Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Taheri Tahereh Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rafati Sima Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Parasitology Research Springer-Verlag 109/3(2011-09-01), 793-799 0932-0113 109:3<793 2011 109 436 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer