Leishmania-host-cell interaction: Complexities and alternative views

Leishmania are protozoan parasites that infect various mammalian species, i ncluding humans. If is generally thought that random attachment of the flag ellated promastigotes to mononuclear phagocytes initiates their uptake via circumferential pseudopods. Intracellularly, the promastigotes become locat ed in phagolysosomes in which they transform to and survive as 'aflagellate d' amastigotes that hide their shortened flagellum within the flagellar poc ket. Unrestricted replication of these amastigotes is assumed to cause the eventual burst of the host cell, thereby releasing the infections parasites . Here, Mike Rittig and Christian Bogdan review a large body of literature containing potentially important but poorly appreciated findings,which toge ther with recent results, argue for Leishmania-host-cell interactions that are much more complex than generally thought.