Importance of Further Research on Leishmania Biology |Biomedgrid

Diagnosis of Leishmania infection is insensitive and nonspecific. Knowledge of Leishmania biochemistry and genetics is very essential. The Leishmania genome size is nearly 34 Mb and chromosomes size range from 0.3 to 2.8 Mb [1, 2]. The Leishmania karyotype is conserved from species of Leishmania and the genes are syntenic [1-4]. The sequence of the smallest Leishmania chromosome was completed in 1998 and 79 protein-coding genes were identified [5]. Recently, one thousand complete genes have been identified from the cosmid sequencing [6] New molecular tools like regulatable promoter system for analysis of Leishmania biology, will increase our knowledge and help in the prevention and control of Leishmania disease [6]. There is no vaccine that is effective for human leishmaniasis because factors that are involved in the development of specific memory cells for Leishmania and long-lasting immunity are not fully understood until now [7].