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About the Authors:
Wafa Kammoun-Rebai
Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft
Affiliations Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnologies and Biomolecules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia, Département de Biologie, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
Narges Bahi-Jaber
Roles Data curation, Formal analysis
Affiliation: UPSP EGEAL Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, Beauvais, France
Ikbel Naouar
Roles Investigation
Affiliations Département de Biologie, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia, Laboratory of Transmission, Control and Immunobiology of Infection, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
Amine Toumi
Roles Formal analysis
Affiliation: Laboratory of Transmission, Control and Immunobiology of Infection, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
Afif Ben Salah
Roles Data curation, Funding acquisition, Project administration
Affiliations Laboratory of Transmission, Control and Immunobiology of Infection, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia, Arabian Gulf University, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Manama, Bahrain
Hechmi Louzir
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Resources
Affiliations Laboratory of Transmission, Control and Immunobiology of Infection, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia, Faculté de Médecine de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
Amel Meddeb-Garnaoui
Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnologies and Biomolecules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, TunisiaAbstract
Background
Sand fly saliva compounds are able to elicit specific immune responses that have a significant role in Leishmania parasite establishment and disease outcome. Characterizing anti-saliva immune responses in individuals living in well defined leishmaniasis endemic areas would provide valuable insights regarding their effect on parasite transmission and establishment in humans.
Methodology/Principal findings
We explored the cellular and humoral immune responses to Phlebotomus (P.) papatasi salivary gland extracts (SGE) in individuals living in cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) old or emerging foci (OF, EF). OF was characterized by a higher infection prevalence as assessed by higher proportions of leishmanin skin test (LST) positive individuals compared to EF. Subjects were further subdivided into healed, asymptomatic or naïve groups. We showed anti-SGE proliferation in less than 30% of the individuals, regardless of the immune status, in both foci. IFN-[gamma] production was higher in OF and only observed in immune individuals from OF and naïve subjects from EF. Although IL-10 was not...