Title: Reversion to virulence in Leishmania major correlates with expression of surface lipophosphoglycan
Abstract: An attenuated clone of Leishmania major was produced by chemical mutagenesis with N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidineand was biochemically characterized to determine the reason(s) for its loss of virulence. We found that the degree of virulence of L. major did not correlate with either the levels of lipophosphoglycan (LPG) expression of promastigote surface protease (PSP) or with the enzymatic activity of the molecule. In contrast, the levels of lipophosphoglycan (LPG) expressed by the attenuated clone were found to be at least 6-fold less than those of virulent L. major. When the attenuated L. major was injected into BALB/c mice and allowed to revert to virulence, the degree of reversion to virulence that the parasites underwent correlated directly with the amount and form (metacyclic) of LPG expressed by the parasites. Thus, these results further implicate LPG as an important Leishmania virulence factor.
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 16
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot