Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ege University, Erzene Street, 35040, Bornova/Izmir, Turkey.
Vocational School of Health Sciences, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey.
Acta Parasitol. 2022 Jun;67(2):606-618. doi: 10.1007/s11686-022-00519-3. Epub 2022 Feb 2.
Sand flies are the only proven vectors of leishmaniases, a tropical neglected disease endemic in at least 92 countries. Vector-parasite interactions play a significant role in vector-borne disease transmission. There are various bottlenecks to Leishmania colonization of the sand fly midgut. Such bottlenecks include the production of innate immune-related molecules, digestive proteases, parasite impermeable peritrophic membrane, and resident gut microbiota. These barriers determine the parasite load transmitted and, consequently, the disease outcome in mammalian host. Therefore, it is important to understand the molecular responses of both sand fly and Leishmania during infection.
Here, we reviewed the published literature on sand fly-Leishmania interactions bringing together earlier and current findings to highlight new developments and research gaps in the field.
Recent research studies on sand fly-Leishmania interaction have revealed contrasting observations to past studies. However, how Leishmania parasites evade the sand fly immune response still needs further research. Sand fly response to Leishmania infection can be best understood by analyzing its tissue transcriptome. Better characterization of the role of midgut components could be a game changer in development of transmission-blocking strategies for leishmaniasis.
沙蝇是利什曼病（一种在至少 92 个国家流行的热带被忽视疾病）唯一被证实的传播媒介。媒介-寄生虫相互作用在虫媒传染病的传播中起着重要作用。利什曼原虫在沙蝇中肠的定植存在多种瓶颈。这些瓶颈包括先天免疫相关分子、消化蛋白酶、寄生虫不可渗透的围食膜和肠道常驻菌群的产生。这些障碍决定了在哺乳动物宿主中传播的寄生虫负荷，从而决定了疾病的结果。因此，了解感染过程中沙蝇和利什曼原虫的分子反应非常重要。
在这里，我们回顾了沙蝇-利什曼原虫相互作用的已发表文献，将早期和当前的研究结果汇集在一起，以突出该领域的新发展和研究空白。
最近对沙蝇-利什曼原虫相互作用的研究揭示了与过去研究的对比观察。然而，利什曼原虫寄生虫如何逃避沙蝇的免疫反应仍需要进一步研究。通过分析组织转录组，可以更好地理解沙蝇对利什曼原虫感染的反应。更好地描述中肠成分的作用可能会改变阻断利什曼病传播的策略的发展。
