Functional genomics of novel virulence factors in Leishmania infection
2nd International Conference on Parasitology
August 01-03, 2016 Manchester, UK

Vyacheslav Yurchenko

University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Bacteriol Parasitol

Abstract:

Leishmania parasites cause a broad range of clinical manifestations from self-healing skin lesions to systemic tissue damage and death. The current study is focused on functional genomics approach aimed to identify and characterize novel virulence factors that are shared between several different Leishmania species. They are critical for rational drug design for therapies against leishmaniases. In this work we compared expression profiles of the virulent and avirulent strains of L. major and infective (metacyclics and amastigotes) and non-infective (procyclics) developmental stages of L. mexicana. In addition to some known proteins, this analysis revealed a number of novel targets potentially implicated in Leishmania virulence. To gain insight into their functional roles, genes encoding 3 of these putative virulence factors were ablated using conventional and CRISPR/Cas9 mediated techniques. Parasites phenotypes, development and infectivity will be discussed in the framework of anti Leishmania drug design.

Biography :

Vyacheslav Yurchenko is an Associate Professor and Head of Laboratory of Molecular Protozoology at the Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava. His lab is involved in research on Leishmania parasites and their monoxenous relatives. He has published over 55 peer-reviewed papers and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member for several scientific journals.

Email: Vyacheslav.Yurchenko@osu.cz