Leishmania Proteomics: Insight into Diagnostics and Vaccine Development

Abstract

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a life-threatening parasitic disease in the Indian subcontinent, is caused by the protozoan parasites-Leishmania donovani and transmitted by the bite of the Phlebotomus sand fly. These parasites have adopted many invasion mechanisms to survive the host’s direct immune responses and established themselves in the host cells. Although efforts have been made to develop sensitive biomarkers for diagnosis and effective vaccines for VL treat-ment, we still need to achieve these goals with great success. Advances in various proteomic platforms have allowed us to identify large numbers of surface and cytosolic proteins from mixed stages of the Leishmania life cycle, which can be manipulated as a diagnostic marker or can be used as vaccine candidates. In this review, we highlight the proteins in amastigote and promastigote forms of Leish-mania parasite and discuss their potential implications in future diagnostic and vaccine development. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.