Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease that is transmitted by the bite of infected phlebotomine sandflies. This disease is caused by over 20 different Leishmania species, and is estimated to globally affect 1.3 million individuals annually, resulting in 30,000 deaths¹.

Currently, chemotherapeutic treatment of leishmaniasis is considerably toxic and largely dependent on disease manifestation, protozoan species, and concomitant infection¹. Further, differences between Leishmania species and strains can contribute to variations in drug susceptibility, making treatment and the development of novel therapeutics challenging².

To aid in the development of novel treatments, ATCC recently acquired four transgenic Leishmania species that constitutively express GFP. These strains were developed by Patel et al. via integration of the pRib1.2αNEOαGFP construct downstream of the 18S rRNA promoter. Each strain was then evaluated by the group for growth and the ability to infect host cells².

These transgenic strains represent ready-to-use tools for the in vitro evaluation of novel therapeutics, and provide a model for understanding Leishmania pathogenesis.

View these strains today, or browse our complete collection of vector-borne research materials at ww.atcc.org/vectorborne.

References 1. "Leishmaniasis." World Health Organization. World Health Organization, Sept. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016. 2. Patel AP, et al. Development and validation of four Leishmania species constitutively expressing GFP protein. A model for drug discovery and disease pathogenesis studies. Parasitology 141: 501-510, 2014.