Drug Resistance in Leishmania Parasites

Foreword.- Introduction. Leishmaniasis, the biology of a parasite. Alicia Ponte Sucre.- I Determinant features in leishmaniasis.- 1 Molecular evolution and phylogeny of Leishmania. Gabriele Schoenian, Elisa Cupolillo, Isabel Mauricio.- 2 The role of reservoirs: Canine leishmaniasis. Lenea Campino, Carla Maia.- 3 Epidemiology of leishmaniasis in the time of drug resistance. Jean Claude Dujardin, Saskya Decuypere.- II Leishmania and the immune system.- 4 The role of the immune system in resistance to infection. Lukasz Kedzierski, Krystal J. Evans.- 5 Vaccination as a control measure. Katrin Färber , Heidrun Moll.- 6 Leishmania vaccines: Past, Present and Future. Bhavana Sethu Lakshmi, Rentala Madhubala.- III Challenges in the diagnosis, treatment and control of leishmaniasis in times of drug resistance.- 7 Co-infection with HIV. Margriet den Boer, Luis Rivas, Jorge Alvar.- 8 Visceral leishmaniasis. Shyam Sundar , J aya Chakravarty.- 9 American Tegumentary leishmaniasis. Olga Zerpa, Alicia Ponte-Sucre.- IV Molecular features of drug-resistant Leishmania.- 10 Genetic expression and drug resistance, the role of proteomics. Patricia Cuervo, Jose Batista de Jesus.- 11 The role of ABC transporters in drug-resistant Leishmania. Adriano C Coelho, Paulo C Cotrim.- 12 Functional analysis of Leishmania membrane (non ABC) transporters involved in drug resistance. Scott M Landfear.- 13 Intracellular mechanisms of resistance in Leishmania.- V Pharmacology and chemotherapy of leishmaniasis. Mitali Chatterjee.- 14 Classical vs new Treatment regimens. Louis Maes, Raquel Andreia Inocencio da Luz, Paul Cos, Vanessa Yardley.- 15 Drug targets, drug effectors and drug targeting and delivery. Philippe M Loiseau, Gillian Barratt.- 16 Mechanisms of miltefosine resistance in Leishmania. Francisco Gamarro, María P Sánchez-Cañete, Santiago Castanys.- 17 P-glycoprotein-like transporters in Leishmania: a search for reversal agents. Bruno Pradines.- VI Strategies to circumvent drug resistance in

Alicia Ponte-Sucre studied biophysics and physiology at the University of Venezuela in Caracas and received her Phd in Pharmacology in 1993. In 1999 she spent a sabbatical year at the University of Würzburg with a scholarship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. From 2003 to 2007 she was staff scientist at the University of Würzburg, working on a multidisciplinary project from the German Research Council (DFG), studying the molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in Leishmania. Currently, she is full professor of human physiology at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Venezuela and visiting scientist at the Institut Missio of the University of Würzburg, Germany. Her main research interests are the development of therapeutic, reasonable priced tools, which do not cause resistance.