Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 Leishmania Parasite Uses Host Antibodies in Insect Vector's Blood Meal to Breed Caption: An illustration showing the sand fly and human stages of leishmaniasis. Credit: NIAID. Spooky science: Inside a bloodsucking insect, a parasite uses the blood of mammals to get more fit to infect unsuspecting people. In this case, the story is more troubling because it's a real threat. The parasite is Leishmania, which causes leishmaniasis, a primarily tropical and subtropical disease that can cause skin lesions and organ damage, and can be fatal. The bloodsucking insect that spreads Leishmania parasites is the sand fly, a small, biting vector that infects humans and other mammals with the parasite. Researchers at NIAID found that the parasite uses antibodies from the human or mammalian host to form mating clumps in the sand fly gut, prompting a process that allows the parasite to adapt and become more suited to infecting people. The findings were published today in Nature. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases  |  National Institutes of Health Update your subscriptions, modify your password or e-mail address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences Page. You will need to use your e-mail address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please contact Subscriber Help. This service is provided to you at no charge by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).                             This email was sent to myhcistech.healthnews360@blogger.com using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 5601 Fishers Lane · Bethesda, MD 20892 · 1-866-284-4107