Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 May 7:12:667807.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.667807. eCollection 2021.

Lysosome Sensing Is a Key Mechanism in Leishmania Intracellular Development

Dan Zilberstein  1
Affiliations
Review

Lysosome Sensing Is a Key Mechanism in Leishmania Intracellular Development

Dan Zilberstein. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

Phagolysosomes of macrophages are the niche where the parasitic protozoan Leishmania resides and causes human leishmaniasis. During infection, this organism encounters dramatic environmental changes. These include heat shock (from 26°C in the vector to 33°C or 37°C in the host, for cutaneous and visceral species, respectively) and acidic pH typical to the lysosome and nutrient availability. Leishmania cells developed ways to sense the lysosome-specific environment (acidic pH and body temperature) as means of recognition and, subsequently, initiation of differentiation into the intracellular form. Recent studies have indicated that protein kinase A plays a role as the gatekeeper that enables differentiation initiation. This review provides an update on the lysosome signaling pathway-mediated Leishmania intracellular development.

Keywords: Leishmania; development; differentiation; macrophages; sensing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Alexander J., Vickerman K. (1975). Fusion of host cell secondary lysosomes with the parasitophorous vacuoles of Leishmania mexicana-infected macrophages. J. Protozool. 22 502–508. 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1975.tb05219.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Antoine J. C., Prina E., Lang T., Courret N. (1998). The biogenesis and properties of the parasitophorous vacuoles that harbour Leishmania in murine macrophages. Trends Microbiol. 6 392–401. 10.1016/s0966-842x(98)01324-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bachmaier S., Boshart M. (2013). “Kinetoplastid AGC kinases,” in Protein Phosphorylation in Eukaryotic Parasites: Potential for Chemotherapy, eds Doerig D., Spaeth C. S., Wiese M., Selzer P. M. (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell; ).
    1. Bachmaier S., Volpato Santos Y., Kramer S., Githure G. B., Klöckner T., Pepperl J., et al. (2019). Nucleoside analogue activators of cyclic AMP-independent protein kinase A of Trypanosoma. Nat. Commun. 10:1421. 10.1038/s41467-019-09338-z - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bachmaier S., Witztum R., Tsigankov P., Koren R., Boshart M., Zilberstein D. (2016). Protein kinase A signaling during bidirectional axenic differentiation in Leishmania. Int. J. Parasitol. 46 75–82. 10.1016/j.ijpara.2015.09.003 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources