Leishmania parasites (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) reversibly inhibit visceral muscle contractions in hemimetabolous and holometabolous insects

Leishmania, microbiota and sand fly immunity

In this review, we explore the state-of-the-art of sand fly relationships with microbiota, viruses and Leishmania, with particular emphasis on the vector immune responses. Insect-borne diseases are a major public health problem in the world. Phlebotomine sand flies are proven vectors of several aetiological agents including viruses, bacteria and the trypanosomatid Leishmania, which are responsible for diseases such as viral encephalitis, bartonellosis and leishmaniasis, respectively. All metazoans in nature coexist intimately with a community of commensal microorganisms known as microbiota. The microbiota has a fundamental role in the induction, maturation and function of the host immune system, which can modulate host protection from pathogens and infectious diseases. We briefly review viruses of public health importance present in sand flies and revisit studies done on bacterial and fungal gut contents of these vectors. We bring this information into the context of sand fly development and immune responses. We highlight the immunity mechanisms that the insect utilizes to survive the potential threats involved in these interactions and discuss the recently discovered complex interactions among microbiota, sand fly, Leishmania and virus. Additionally, some of the alternative control strategies that could benefit from the current knowledge are considered.

Host modulation by a parasite: how Leishmania infantum modifies the intestinal environment of Lutzomyia longipalpis to favor its development

Some reports have described the interference of Leishmania on sand flies physiology, and such behavior most likely evolved to favor the development and transmission of the parasite. Most of these studies showed that Leishmania could modulate the level of proteases in the midgut after an infective blood meal, and decreased proteolytic activity is indeed beneficial for the development of promastigotes in the gut of sand flies. In the present study, we performed a detailed investigation of the intestinal pH in Lutzomyia longipalpis females naturally infected with Leishmania infantum and investigated the production of trypsin by these insects using different approaches. Our results allowed us to propose a mechanism by which these parasites interfere with the physiology of L. longipalpis to decrease the production of proteolytic enzymes. According to our hypothesis L. infantum promastigotes indirectly interfere with the production of trypsin by modulating the mechanism that controls the intestinal pH via the action of a yet non-identified substance released by promastigote forms inside the midgut. This substance is not an acid, whose action would be restrict on to release H⁺ to the medium, but is a substance that is able to interfere with midgut physiology through a mechanism involving pH control. According to our hypothesis, as the pH decreases, the proteolytic enzymes efficiency is also reduced, leading to a decline in the supply of amino acids to the enterocytes: this decline reduces the stimulus for protease production because it is regulated by the supply of amino acids, thus leading to a delay in digestion.

Phlebotomine sand flies and Leishmania parasites: friends or foes?

Leishmania parasites need phlebotomine sand flies to complete their life cycle and to propagate. This review looks at Leishmania-sand fly interactions as the parasites develop from amastigotes to infectious metacyclics, highlighting recent findings concerning the evolutionary adaptations that ensure survival of the parasites. Such adaptations include secretion of phosphoglycans, which protect the parasite from digestive enzymes; production of chitinases that degrade the stomodeal valve of the sand fly; secretion of a neuropeptide that arrests midgut and hindgut peristalsis; and attaching to the midgut to avoid expulsion.

Reversible inhibition of contractions of mammalian cardiomyocytes and of smooth muscle by the protistan parasite Leishmania major

Myotropic neuropeptides have been isolated from vertebrates and invertebrates. Recently, a myoinhibitory peptide from the protist Leishmaniamajor was isolated, and its function in the sand fly vector was described. Similar lysates of cultured L. major were tested for their ability to inhibit contractions in mammalian cell and tissue preparations. L. major proteins (LMP) (34 microg/ml) completely stopped spontaneous contractions of cultured rat cardiomyocytes; cells resumed contracting after a saline wash. An application of 880 microg/ml LMP significantly decreased force of contractions (36%) in strips of guinea pig ileum precontracted with nicotine (p<0.01) but not with acetylcholine (p>0.01). Ileal strips rinsed with Tyrode's solution and again stimulated with nicotine contracted normally. Contractile force of ileal strips electrically stimulated with 40 V was reduced in a dose-dependent manner (30, 76, and 100%) (p<0.01) by increasing concentrations of LMP (220, 440, and 880 microg/ml). This ileal preparation resumed contracting after rinsing with Tyrode's solution. Oxytocin-induced contractions of guinea pig uterine strips were reduced significantly in a dose-dependent manner (21 and 55%) (p<0.01) by increasing concentrations (170 and 310 microg/ml) of LMP and resumed contracting normally after rinsing with Tyrode's solution. Modes of action for L. major myoinhibitory factors may include either decreasing Ca(2+) influx or increasing Ca(2+) efflux in susceptible muscle. Protistan-induced inotropism is discussed in light of exacerbating pathology of disease.