Malnutrition exacerbates pathogenesis of sand fly-transmitted Leishmania donovani
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) models of transmission via Leishmania-infected sand flies and malnutrition promote parasite dissemination. Malnutrition is a risk factor in human VL, a disease transmitted by vector bites. The strong association of VL with poverty and malnutrition prompted us to investigate the malnutrition-Leishmania infection relationship following vector-transmission of the parasites in a murine model. In this study, we present a chronic mouse model representative of childhood malnutrition paired with natural transmission of L. donovani by infected sand fly bites. We use this model to investigate the early innate inflammatory response that mediates and promotes parasite dissemination and explore the evolution of VL pathology under more natural conditions that combines malnutrition with vector-transmission of L. donovani. To explore whether the gut microbiome of chronically malnourished animals would be influenced by vector-transmitted L. donovani, we performed 16S rRNA sequencing of fecal matter.