title: Intracellular Leishmania: your iron or mine?
abstract: Iron is a co-factor for several essential enzymes and biochemical pathways, including those required for replication of pathogens such as Leishmania in macrophages. Iron acquisition is emerging as a key battleground in which the iron import systems of microbes are pitted against the iron withdrawal and sequestration systems of macrophages, with both competing for iron at the interface of host-pathogen interaction. The recent characterization of a ferrous iron transport system (LIT1) in Leishmania amazonensis that is induced intracellularly and is required for survival in macrophages and for virulence in vivo provides an elegant example of the adaptation of protozoa to the iron-poor phagosomal environment.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Study of Host Resistance, Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, H3G 1Y6, Canada.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Marquis
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gros
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D027682:Cation Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D007891:Leishmania / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D007896:Leishmaniasis / Q000469:parasitology; D008264:Macrophages / Q000469:parasitology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D027682:Cation Transport Proteins; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D007501:Iron