Abstract:
In India the sand fly, Phlebotomus argentipes, transmitted parasitic disease termed kala-azar is caused by Leishmania donovani (LD) in humans. These immune-evading parasites have increasingly developed resistance to the drug sodium antimony gluconate in endemic regions. Lack of early diagnosis methods for the disease limits the information available regarding the early interactions of this parasite with either human tissues or cell lineages. We reasoned that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy human beings could help compare some of their immune signatures once they were exposed for up to 8 days, to either pentavalent antimony sensitive (SbS-LD) or resistant (SbR-LD) Leishmania donovani isolates. At day 2, PBMC cultures exposed to SbS-LD and SbR-LD stationary phase promastigotes had four and seven fold higher frequency of IL-10 secreting monocyte-macrophage respectively, compared to cultures unexposed to parasites. Contrasting with the CD4+CD25-C.
