Long-term hematopoietic stem cells as a parasite niche during treatment failure in visceral leishmaniasis

Given the discontinuation of various first-line drugs for visceral leishmaniasis (VL), large-scale in vivo drug screening, establishment of a relapse model in rodents, immunophenotyping, and transcriptomics were combined to study persistent infections and therapeutic failure. Double bioluminescent/fluorescent Leishmania infantum and L. donovani reporter lines enabled the identification of long-term hematopoietic stem cells (LT-HSC) as a niche in the bone marrow with remarkably high parasite burdens, a feature confirmed for human hematopoietic stem cells (hHSPC). LT-HSC are more tolerant to antileishmanial drug action and serve as source of relapse. A unique transcriptional ’StemLeish’ signature in these cells was defined by upregulated TNF/NF-κB and RGS1/TGF-β/SMAD/SKIL signaling, and a downregulated oxidative burst. Cross-species analyses demonstrated significant overlap with human VL and HIV co-infected blood transcriptomes. In summary, the identification of LT-HSC as a drug- and oxidative stress-resistant niche, undergoing a conserved transcriptional reprogramming underlying Leishmania persistence and treatment failure, may open therapeutic avenues for leishmaniasis.