Quantitative proteomics of infected macrophages reveals novel Leishmania virulence factors

Hagedorn N, Fradera-Sola A, Mitnacht M, Gold T, Schleicher U, Butter F, Janzen CJ (2026)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

PLoS Pathogens Public Library of Science

Book Volume: 22

Article Number: e1013934

Journal Issue: 2 February

DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1013934

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a major public health problem, causing diseases ranging from self-healing skin lesions to life-threatening chronic infections. Understanding how Leishmania parasites evade the host defense system is crucial for understanding the different manifestations of the disease and for improving diagnostic tools and drug development. We performed high-resolution proteome profiling of Leishmania spp. across three species during macrophage infection and identified distinct temporal expression patterns. Clustering analysis revealed unique protein expression profiles for each Leishmania species, whereas pairwise enrichment analysis revealed specific up- and downregulation patterns at different infection stages. Our results confirmed known virulence factors and highlighted new ones, demonstrating how our dataset could be used. We validated the dataset by showing that deletion of putative L. mexicana virulence factors resulted in reduced stage differentiation capacity and infectivity.

Authors with CRIS profile

Tobias Gold Institute of Microbiology – Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene Ulrike Schleicher Institute of Microbiology – Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene

Involved external institutions

Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg DE Germany (DE) Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), Bundesforschungsinstitut für Tiergesundheit DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Hagedorn, N., Fradera-Sola, A., Mitnacht, M., Gold, T., Schleicher, U., Butter, F., & Janzen, C.J. (2026). Quantitative proteomics of infected macrophages reveals novel Leishmania virulence factors. PLoS Pathogens, 22(2 February). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1013934

MLA:

Hagedorn, Nicolas, et al. "Quantitative proteomics of infected macrophages reveals novel Leishmania virulence factors." PLoS Pathogens 22.2 February (2026).

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