IDENTIFICATION OF DIFFERENTIALLY EXPRESSED GENES AMONG LEISHMANIA SPECIES

这个子项目是许多利用资源的研究子项目之一 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目的主要支持 而子项目的主要调查员可能是由其他来源提供的， 包括其它NIH来源。 列出的子项目总成本可能 代表子项目使用的中心基础设施的估计数量， 而不是由NCRR赠款提供给子项目或子项目工作人员的直接资金。 该项目的长期目标是鉴定和表征利什曼原虫中差异表达的基因，这些基因可用作开发治疗利什曼病的新药物疗法的潜在新靶点。非洲、印度和拉丁美洲至少有1200万人感染利什曼原虫，3.5亿人处于危险之中。此外，目前部署在流行地区（即中东）的数千名美军面临感染寄生虫和重大疾病的重大风险。目前尚不清楚哪些基因和多少蛋白质参与致病性利什曼原虫的生存和毒力。 我们假设，致病性和非致病性物种之间的基因表达的差异，应确定一些基因，这些寄生虫的生存和重要的毒力是至关重要的。因此，在本研究中，我们将确定致病性和非致病性利什曼原虫种之间的差异表达基因的cDNAAFLP，随后通过亚克隆扩增片段并对其进行DNA测序和分析来表征这些基因。致病性和非致病性物种之间差异表达的基因的表征是确定用于治疗利什曼病的无毒药物开发的潜在新靶点的第一步，利什曼病是一种毁灭性和潜在致命的人类疾病。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. The long term goal of this project is to identify and characterize differentially expressed genes in Leishmania that may be used as potential novel targets for the development of new drug therapies for the treatment of leishmaniasis. At least 12 million people in Africa, India and Latin America are infected with Leishmania, and 350 million are at risk. Moreover, the thousands of US troops currently deployed in endemic areas (i.e. the Middle East) are at significant risk for contracting the parasite and significant disease. It is poorly understood which genes and how many proteins are involved in the survival and virulence of the pathogenic species of Leishmania. We hypothesize that differences in the expression of genes among and between pathogenic and non pathogenic species should identify some of the genes that are critical to the survival and important to the virulence of these parasites. Thus, in the current study we will identify differentially expressed genes between pathogenic and nonpathogenic species of Leishmania by cDNAAFLP and subsequently characterize these genes by sub cloning the amplified fragments and subjecting them to DNA sequence and analyses. The characterization of genes differentially expressed between pathogenic and non pathogenic species is a first step in identifying potential novel targets for the development of nontoxic drugs to be used in the treatment of leishmaniasis, a devastating and potentially fatal collection of human diseases.