Efficacy of vaccination with a combination of Leishmania amastigotes antigens and the lipid A-analogue ONO-4007 for immunoprophylaxis and immunotherapy against Leishmania amazonensis infection in a murine model of New World cutaneous leishmaniasis

CALVOPINA, MANUEL; BARROSO, PAOLA ANDREA; MARCO, JORGE DIEGO; KORENAGA, MASATAKA; COOPER, PHILIP; NONAKA, SHIGEO; HASHIGUCHI, YOSHIHISA

VACCINE

Elsevier Science

Lugar: London, England; Año: 2006 vol. 24 p. 5645 - 5652

0264-410X

Background: Determinants of the clinical presentation of the leishmaniases are poorly understood but Leishmania species and strain differences are important. To examine the relationship between clinicalpresentation, species and isoenzyme polymorphisms, 56 Leishmania isolates from distinct presentations of American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) from Ecuador were analyzed. Methods: Isolates were characterized by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis for polymorphisms of 11 isoenzymes. Patients were infected in four different ecologic regions: highland and lowland jungle of the Pacific coast, Amazonian lowlands and Andean highlands. Results: Six Leishmania species constituting 21 zymodemes were identified: L. (Viannia) panamensis (21 isolates, 7 zymodemes), L. (V.) guyanensis (7 isolates, 4 zymodemes), L. (V.) braziliensis (5 isolates, 3 zymodemes), L.(Leishmania) mexicana (11 isolates, 4 zymodemes), L. (L.) amazonensis (10 isolates, 2 zymodemes) and L. (L.) major (2 isolates, 1 zymodeme). L. panamensis was the species most frequently identified in the Pacific region and was associated with several clinical variants of cutaneous disease (CL); eight cases of leishmaniasis recidiva cutis (LRC)found in the Pacific highlands were associated with 3 zymodemes of this species. Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis found only in the Amazonian focus was associated with 3 zymodemes of L. braziliensis. The papular variant of CL, Uta, found in the Andean highlands was related predominantly with a single zymodeme of L. mexicana. Conclusion: Our data show a high degree of phenotypic variation within species, and some evidence for associations between specific variants of ATL (i.e. Uta and LRC) and specific Leishmania zymodemes. This study further defines the geographic distribution of Leishmania species and clinical variants of ATL in Ecuador.