Project description:Leishmania are ancient eukaryotes that have retained the ability to produce extracellular vesicles (EVs) through evolution. Until date, it was unclear if different DNA entities could be associated to Leishmania EVs, and whether these could constitute a novel mechanism of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Herein, we investigated the DNA content of EVs derived from drug-resistant parasites, as well as the potential of EVs as shuttles for DNA transfer. Next-generation sequencing, and PCR assays confirmed the enrichment of amplicons carrying drug-resistance genes associated to EVs. Transfer assays of drug-resistant EVs highlighted a significant impact in the phenotype of recipient parasites induced by the expression of the transferred DNA. Recipient parasites displayed an enhanced growth and better control of oxidative stress. We provide the first evidence that eukaryotic EVs function as efficient mediators in HGT, thereby facilitating the transmission of drug-resistance genes and increasing the fitness of cells when encountering stressful environments.
Project description:Leishmania RNA virus is an endosymbiotic virus of obligate intracellular Leishmania parasites. The presence of Leishmania RNA virus has been associated to metastatic leishmaniasis in hamsters and the failure of the first-line treatment in humans. This experiment aims to find the differences in the microRNA profile of bone-marrow derived macrophages infected with Leishmania RNA virus containing L.guyanensis or virus-free parasites.
Project description:Leishmania (L) are intracellular protozoan parasites which are able to survive and replicate within the harsh and potentially hostile phago-lysosomal environment of mammalian mononuclear phagocytes. A complex interplay then takes place between the macrophage (MM-NM-&) striving to eliminate the pathogen and the parasite struggling for its own survival. To investigate, at the transcriptional level, this host-parasite conflict in the context of monocyte-derived human MM-NM-&s (MDM) infection by L. major metacyclic promastigotes, the quantitative technique of serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was used. After extracting mRNA from resting human MM-NM-&s, Leishmania-infected human MM-NM-&s and L. major parasites, three SAGE libraries were constructed and sequenced generating up to 28,173; 57,514 and 33,906 tags respectively (corresponding to 12,946; 23,442 and 9,530 unique tags). Using computational data analysis and direct comparison to 394,059 publicly available experimental human tags, the parasite and the host cell transcriptomes were then simultaneously characterized from the mixed cellular extract, allowing to confidently discriminate host from parasite transcripts. This procedure led us to reliably assign 3,814 tags to MM-NM-&sM-bM-^@M-^Y and 3,666 tags to L. major parasitesM-bM-^@M-^Y transcripts. We focused on those, showing significant changes in their expression that are likely to be relevant to the pathogenesis of parasite infection: (i) human MM-NM-&s genes, belonging to key immune response proteins (i.e. IFNM-NM-3 pathway, S100 and chemokine families) and (ii) a group of Leishmania genes showing a preferential expression at the intra-cellular developing stage of the parasite. Dual SAGE transcriptome analysis provided a useful, powerful and accurate approach to discriminate between genes of human or parasitic origin in Leishmania-infected human MM-NM-&s. The findings presented in this work suggest that the Leishmania parasite is modulating key transcripts in the human MM-NM-&s that may be beneficial for its establishment and survival and provided an overview of gene expression at two developmental stages of the parasite, namely metacyclic promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes, indicating a broad difference between their transcriptomic profiles. Finally, our reported set of expressed genes could deserve future rounds of data mining and gene annotation. Keywords: Leishmania major, Human macrophages, in vitro, infection, transcriptome, SAGE Human monocyte derived macrophages (MDM) from four healthy donors were infected in vitro for 24 hours with metacyclic Leishmania major parasites (ratio 1:5) and the pool was used to construct SAGE library. Non infected MDM from the same donors and from metacyclic Leishmania major parasites were used to construct the two controls' SAGE libraries.
Project description:Leishmania (L) are intracellular protozoan parasites which are able to survive and replicate within the harsh and potentially hostile phago-lysosomal environment of mammalian mononuclear phagocytes. A complex interplay then takes place between the macrophage (MΦ) striving to eliminate the pathogen and the parasite struggling for its own survival. To investigate, at the transcriptional level, this host-parasite conflict in the context of monocyte-derived human MΦs (MDM) infection by L. major metacyclic promastigotes, the quantitative technique of serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was used. After extracting mRNA from resting human MΦs, Leishmania-infected human MΦs and L. major parasites, three SAGE libraries were constructed and sequenced generating up to 28,173; 57,514 and 33,906 tags respectively (corresponding to 12,946; 23,442 and 9,530 unique tags). Using computational data analysis and direct comparison to 394,059 publicly available experimental human tags, the parasite and the host cell transcriptomes were then simultaneously characterized from the mixed cellular extract, allowing to confidently discriminate host from parasite transcripts. This procedure led us to reliably assign 3,814 tags to MΦs’ and 3,666 tags to L. major parasites’ transcripts. We focused on those, showing significant changes in their expression that are likely to be relevant to the pathogenesis of parasite infection: (i) human MΦs genes, belonging to key immune response proteins (i.e. IFNγ pathway, S100 and chemokine families) and (ii) a group of Leishmania genes showing a preferential expression at the intra-cellular developing stage of the parasite. Dual SAGE transcriptome analysis provided a useful, powerful and accurate approach to discriminate between genes of human or parasitic origin in Leishmania-infected human MΦs. The findings presented in this work suggest that the Leishmania parasite is modulating key transcripts in the human MΦs that may be beneficial for its establishment and survival and provided an overview of gene expression at two developmental stages of the parasite, namely metacyclic promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes, indicating a broad difference between their transcriptomic profiles. Finally, our reported set of expressed genes could deserve future rounds of data mining and gene annotation. Keywords: Leishmania major, Human macrophages, in vitro, infection, transcriptome, SAGE
Project description:Monocyte derived dendritic cells (MDDC) were infected with Leishmania major or Leishmania donovani parasites and collected at 4, 8, and 24 hours post-infection to analyze the differential effects those parasite species have on human host cell gene expression over time.
Project description:Monocyte derived dendritic cells (MDDC) were infected with Leishmania major or Leishmania donovani parasites and collected at 4, 8, and 24 hours post-infection to analyze the differential effects those parasite species have on human host cell gene expression over time. Monocyte derived dendritic cells (MDDC) were generated from blood buffy coats collected from five anonymous healthy human donors and infected 10:1 (parasite to host cell) with Leishmania major Friedlin V1 strain or Leishmania donovani 1S strain parasites, where after 4, 8, or 24 hours total RNA was harvested from cells, cDNA generated, and hybridized to human gene transcipt expression arrays to assess differential host cell gene transcriptional expression differences relative to uninfected cells.
Project description:Human babesiosis, especially caused by the cattle derived Babesia divergens parasite, is on the increase, resulting in renewed attentiveness to this potentially life threatening emerging zoonotic disease. The molecular mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology and intra-erythrocytic development of these parasites are poorly understood. This impedes concerted efforts aimed at the discovery of novel anti-babesiacidal agents. By applying sensitive cell biological and molecular functional genomics tools, we describe the intra-erythrocytic development cycle of B. divergens parasites from immature, mono-nucleated ring forms to bi-nucleated paired piriforms and ultimately multi-nucleated tetrads that characterizes zoonotic Babesia spp. This is further correlated for the first time to nuclear content increases during intra-erythrocytic development progression, providing insight into the part of the life cycle that occurs during human infection. High-content temporal evaluation elucidated the contribution of the different stages to life cycle progression. Moreover, molecular descriptors indicate that B. divergens parasites employ physiological adaptation to in vitro cultivation. Additionally, differential expression is observed as the parasite equilibrates its developmental stages during its life cycle. Together, this information provides the first temporal evaluation of the functional transcriptome of B. divergens parasites; information that could be useful in identifying biological processes essential to parasite survival for future anti-babesiacidal discoveries.