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Canine Leishmaniasis: Update on Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dogs are the main host of Leishmania infantum, a parasite that causes an incurable disease called canine leishmaniasis. This parasite is transmitted through the bite of a sandfly (a small insect related to mosquitoes and flies) in tropical and subtropical countries, but direct transm...

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Autores principales: Morales-Yuste, Manuel, Martín-Sánchez, Joaquina, Corpas-Lopez, Victoriano
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9416075/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36006301
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9080387
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author Morales-Yuste, Manuel
Martín-Sánchez, Joaquina
Corpas-Lopez, Victoriano
author_facet Morales-Yuste, Manuel
Martín-Sánchez, Joaquina
Corpas-Lopez, Victoriano
author_sort Morales-Yuste, Manuel
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dogs are the main host of Leishmania infantum, a parasite that causes an incurable disease called canine leishmaniasis. This parasite is transmitted through the bite of a sandfly (a small insect related to mosquitoes and flies) in tropical and subtropical countries, but direct transmission between dogs, and from pregnant dogs to their puppies, exists. We reviewed the advances in tools and techniques for the surveillance of the disease, its diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Canine leishmaniasis is expanding to the Northern Hemisphere, where it is barely known, due to climate change and the importation of dogs. Surveillance is therefore necessary in order to determine the extent of the disease in these areas and to monitor the appearance of the sandflies. Molecular techniques and rapid serological tests are now widespread for diagnosis and epidemiological studies. Several vaccines have been developed in the last decade, and even though their efficacy is limited, these advances will pave the way for the development of better vaccines against Leishmania and other parasites. Although new pharmacological tools are available, we are still waiting for the ideal drug that can eliminate the parasite from target organs and limit transmission to sandflies, without the side effects of current antileishmanials. ABSTRACT: Dog are the main reservoir of Leishmania infantum, causing canine leishmaniasis, an incurable multisystemic disease that leads to death in symptomatic dogs, when not treated. This parasite causes visceral, cutaneous, and mucosal leishmaniasis in people in the Mediterranean Basin, North Africa, South America, and West Asia. This disease is mostly unknown by veterinarians outside the endemic areas, but the disease is expanding in the Northern Hemisphere due to travel and climate change. New methodologies to study the epidemiology of the disease have found new hosts of leishmaniasis and drawn a completely new picture of the parasite biological cycle. Canine leishmaniasis diagnosis has evolved over the years through the analysis of new samples using novel molecular techniques. Given the neglected nature of leishmaniasis, progress in drug discovery is slow, and the few drugs that reach clinical stages in humans are unlikely to be commercialised for dogs, but several approaches have been developed to support chemotherapy. New-generation vaccines developed during the last decade are now widely used, along with novel prevention strategies. The implications of the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of canine leishmaniasis are fundamental to public health.
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spelling pubmed-94160752022-08-27 Canine Leishmaniasis: Update on Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention Morales-Yuste, Manuel Martín-Sánchez, Joaquina Corpas-Lopez, Victoriano Vet Sci Review SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dogs are the main host of Leishmania infantum, a parasite that causes an incurable disease called canine leishmaniasis. This parasite is transmitted through the bite of a sandfly (a small insect related to mosquitoes and flies) in tropical and subtropical countries, but direct transmission between dogs, and from pregnant dogs to their puppies, exists. We reviewed the advances in tools and techniques for the surveillance of the disease, its diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Canine leishmaniasis is expanding to the Northern Hemisphere, where it is barely known, due to climate change and the importation of dogs. Surveillance is therefore necessary in order to determine the extent of the disease in these areas and to monitor the appearance of the sandflies. Molecular techniques and rapid serological tests are now widespread for diagnosis and epidemiological studies. Several vaccines have been developed in the last decade, and even though their efficacy is limited, these advances will pave the way for the development of better vaccines against Leishmania and other parasites. Although new pharmacological tools are available, we are still waiting for the ideal drug that can eliminate the parasite from target organs and limit transmission to sandflies, without the side effects of current antileishmanials. ABSTRACT: Dog are the main reservoir of Leishmania infantum, causing canine leishmaniasis, an incurable multisystemic disease that leads to death in symptomatic dogs, when not treated. This parasite causes visceral, cutaneous, and mucosal leishmaniasis in people in the Mediterranean Basin, North Africa, South America, and West Asia. This disease is mostly unknown by veterinarians outside the endemic areas, but the disease is expanding in the Northern Hemisphere due to travel and climate change. New methodologies to study the epidemiology of the disease have found new hosts of leishmaniasis and drawn a completely new picture of the parasite biological cycle. Canine leishmaniasis diagnosis has evolved over the years through the analysis of new samples using novel molecular techniques. Given the neglected nature of leishmaniasis, progress in drug discovery is slow, and the few drugs that reach clinical stages in humans are unlikely to be commercialised for dogs, but several approaches have been developed to support chemotherapy. New-generation vaccines developed during the last decade are now widely used, along with novel prevention strategies. The implications of the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of canine leishmaniasis are fundamental to public health. MDPI 2022-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9416075/ /pubmed/36006301 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9080387 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Morales-Yuste, Manuel
Martín-Sánchez, Joaquina
Corpas-Lopez, Victoriano
Canine Leishmaniasis: Update on Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
title Canine Leishmaniasis: Update on Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
title_full Canine Leishmaniasis: Update on Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
title_fullStr Canine Leishmaniasis: Update on Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
title_full_unstemmed Canine Leishmaniasis: Update on Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
title_short Canine Leishmaniasis: Update on Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
title_sort canine leishmaniasis: update on epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9416075/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36006301
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9080387
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