Last Decade Developments on Leishmania Vaccines with Emphasis on Nanovaccines

Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease caused by the protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. Leishmaniasis annually affects the socioeconomic status of some societies. Evidence show that vaccination could prevent Leishmania and many studies are done on this, particularly nanovacines. So, this article aimed at reviewing recent developments in this field. In current narrative review article, five English databases including Ebsco, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus and four Persian databases including Magiran, Elm Net, Barakat Knowledge Network System, and the Scientific Information Database (SID) were searched for articles published between 2005 and 2016. Current treatment of leishmaniasis is based on chemical drugs but their application is limited due to high cost, toxicity, side effects, and low efficacy. In addition, vaccines can modulate the immune response in removing Leishmania in favor of the hosts. We attempted to review different types of Leishmania vaccine and their development trends, carriers, vaccine candidates, and strategies and delivery systems in last decade. It was found that nanovaccines consisting of multiple antigens and adjuvant are well developed in conjunction with IL-12 as Leish-111f and MPL-SE, therefore, they could be more successful. Current researches on vaccination clearly indicate the need for more research and investment in developing Leishmania vaccine.