Leishmania-macrophage interactions: multiple receptors, multiple ligands and diverse cellular responses.

Although a great deal of progress has been made over the last several years in understanding the interactions of leishmania with mammalian cells, much work remains. The consensus from many of these studies is that promastigotes utilize multiple receptors to bind to macrophages. Ongoing studies involving the use of both purified and molecularly cloned receptors and ligands should eventually provide a more detailed understanding of the mechanisms by which promastigotes infect macrophages. At this time, the mechanism(s) involved in the interaction of amastigotes with mammalian cells remains somewhat enigmatic. Since amastigotes are responsible for the cell to cell spread of leishmania, gaining a better understanding of amastigote-macrophage interactions represents an important goal of future leishmania research.