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Murine cathelicidin: as a host defensive response against Leishmania major infection

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Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a serious global challenge with neither efficacious prophylactic vaccine nor effective and safe therapeutic measures. Cathelicidins, members of antimicrobial peptides family, are small proteins of innate immunity system, which represent a protective barrier against a number of potential pathogens in living organisms. The murine cathelicidin or cathelin-related antimicrobial peptide (CRAMP) is expressed by a variety of cells or tissues, and highly resembles to human cathelicidin (LL-37). It is naturally expressed at a low concentration in adolescent age, but extensively increases during cutaneous infections. Despite its important role, it has less been investigated in parasitic infections. Among all cells, macrophages and skin cells are the two important cells that directly have a relationship with Leishmania major parasites. The present study aimed to show whether cathelicidins protect their hosts following cutaneous leishmaniasis due to L. major parasites. Both in vitro and in vivo models of L. major infection were established by exposing of J744 cell line (murine macrophages) and BALB/c mice with the stationary phase of L. major promastigotes for 24 h and 7 days. The findings revealed that both macrophages and skin cells significantly (p < 0.05) expressed a high level of CRAMP gene and peptide after challenging with L. major parasites. Thus, our data suggest a protective role for cathelicidins against infections caused by L. major parasites. This experimental model could be considered as a novel potential vaccine candidate for planning future control strategy against human leishmaniasis.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful from Kerman University of Medical Sciences, owing to finance supportive burden of this project and appreciatively the Leishmania Research Center due to use of experience and their requirements.

Funding

We did not receive any grants for the publication of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Arash Asadi, Iraj Sharifi & Nima Firouzeh

  2. Infectious Disease Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran

    Amir Tavakoli Kareshk

Authors
  1. Arash Asadi
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  2. Amir Tavakoli Kareshk
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  3. Iraj Sharifi
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  4. Nima Firouzeh
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All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Amir Tavakoli Kareshk.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

To work on animals, we received permission number IR.KMU.REC.1394.208 from the Ethical Review Board of Kerman University of Medical Sciences (Kerman, Iran).

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Asadi, A., Tavakoli Kareshk, A., Sharifi, I. et al. Murine cathelicidin: as a host defensive response against Leishmania major infection. J Parasit Dis 44, 633–638 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-020-01238-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-020-01238-0

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