Laura Dirkx, Sara Van Acker, Yasmine Nicolaes, João Luís Reis Cunha, Rokaya Ahmad, Rik Hendrickx, Ben Caljon, Hideo Imamura, Didier G Ebo, Daniel C Jeffares, Yann G-J Sterckx, Louis Maes, Sarah Hendrickx, Guy Caljon
Addressing the challenges of quiescence and post-treatment relapse is of utmost importance in the microbiology field. This study shows that Leishmania infantum and L. donovani parasites rapidly enter into quiescence after an estimated 2-3 divisions in both human and mouse bone marrow stem cells. Interestingly, this behavior is not observed in macrophages, which are the primary host cells of the Leishmania parasite. Transcriptional comparison of the quiescent and non-quiescent metabolic states confirmed the overall decrease of gene expression as a hallmark of quiescence...
April 24, 2024: PLoS Pathogens