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Genetic regulation of Leishmania infection
Sohrabi, Yahya ; Lipoldová, Marie (advisor) ; Krulová, Magdaléna (referee) ; Kolářová, Iva (referee)
6 Abstract Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease, which belongs to the top health problems because it is endemic in 98 countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Mediterranean region, and is gradually expanding to new areas, including Central Europe and USA. Clinical manifestations of leishmaniasis include a diverse range of forms, ranging from non-lethal cutaneous leishmaniasis to potentially lethal visceral leishmaniasis. Asymptomatic cases are known to exist in endemic areas. Different species of Leishmania induce distinct symptoms, but even the patients infected by the same species develop different symptoms and may respond differently to the treatment. Thus, one of the challenges is to explain the observed variability of leishmaniasis that cannot be attributed to the currently known factors. To find novel regulatory factors of the disease we tested molecules that were shown to play role in other infections and mapped loci controlling parasite load after L. major infection. We also determined genetic control of survival after infection with tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in order to establish whether there are common elements in response to L. major and TBEV. Interferon-induced GTPases (guanylate-binding proteins, GBPs) play an important role in inflammasome activation and mediate...
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