Anine Boucher
University of Greenwich, United Kingdom.
Title: The Effects of Iron chelation on Fpn1 and TfR1 expression during Leishmania infection in Human cells.
Biography
Biography: Anine Boucher
Abstract
Leishmaniasis are tropical diseases whose manifestation ranges from self-healing cutaneous lesions (CL) to visceralising forms (VL) which is lethal when left untreated. The diseases are caused by over 20 species of protozoan parasites known as Leishmania. Once inside the host, parasites can enter different immune cells, however, replication and spread is only known to occur within macrophages. Parasites survival and disease development are linked to the immune response to infection. Both mammalian cells and intracellular parasites will require iron for survival. Although the role of iron on infection has been previously investigated in some Leishmania species, contradictory results means that whether Iron protects from infection or supports it remains unclear.In this study, the effect of iron deficiency on Leishmania survival inside macrophages was evaluated. Two Leishmania species (L. mexicana and L. aethiopica), both responsible for CL were used to infect THP-1 cells in presence of an Iron chelator (DFO). The effect of Iron chelation on parasites infection, intracellular Iron concentration was analyzed over a period of 72 hours.The percentage of infected cells following DFO-treatment significantly increased both in L. mexicana (p=0.0034) and L. aethiopica (p-value of 0.0092) when compared with untreated suggesting that intracellular parasites might protect their host from iron deprivation. Quantification of intracellular ferritin concentration seems to support this hypothesis as showed an increase in treated cells compared with untreated as well as uninfected controls. Further analysis is being carried out to investigate parasites effect on expression of iron transporters.