A novel strain of Leishmania braziliensis harbors not a toti- but a bunyavirus
Leishmania is a genus of the family Trypanosomatidae that unites obligatory parasitic flagellates causing a variety of vector-borne diseases collectively called leishmaniasis. The symptoms range from relatively innocuous skin lesions to complete failures of visceral organs. The disease is exacerbated if a parasite harbors Leishmania RNA viruses (LRVs) of the family Pseudototiviridae. Screening a novel isolate of L. braziliensis, we revealed that it possesses not a toti-, but a bunyavirus of the family Leishbuviridae. To the best of our knowledge, this is a very first discovery of a bunyavirus infecting a representative of the Leishmania subgenus Viannia. We suggest that these viruses may serve as potential factors of virulence in American leishmaniasis and encourage researchers to test leishmanial strains for the presence of not only LRVs, but also other RNA viruses.
Authors
- Alain Kohl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1523-9458)
- Danyil Grybchuk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7506-2738)
- Donnamae Klocek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9066-005X)
- Senne Heeren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5786-258X)
- Vyacheslav Yurchenko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4765-3263)
- Alexei Yu. Kostygov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1516-437X)
- Petr Volf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1790-1123)
- Evgeny S. Gerasimov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0497-1221)
- František Stejskal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3440-513X)
- Lenka Pacáková
- Jovana Sádlová (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0432-2707)
- J.-C. Dujardin
- Aditya Reddy
Institutions
- University of Antwerp (BE)
- University of Ostrava (CZ)
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (GB)
- Lomonosov Moscow State University (RU)
- Charles University (CZ)
- Rega Institute for Medical Research (BE)
- Zoological Institute (RU)
- Central European Institute of Technology – Masaryk University (CZ)
- Krajská Nemocnice Liberec (CZ)
- Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde (BE)
- KU Leuven (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PLoS neglected tropical diseases
- Published
- 2024-12-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012767
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Research on Leishmaniasis Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.80
Funders
- European Commission
- Grantová Agentura České Republiky
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Vlaamse regering