Vaccination in Leishmaniasis and the Mechanism of Immune Responses: A review article

Leishmaniasis is caused by protozoan Leishmania parasites. The disease is predominantly endemic to the tropics and has been reported in more than 98 countries with an estimated increase of approximately 1.5 million per year and more than 12 million infected cases. Key management of control and treatment relies mainly on the detection of infected cases that have been disrupted due to the toxicity of drugs, side effects, and the emergence of drug resistance in parasites. Control of reservoirs and vectors is complex in most involved countries due to operational problems and lack of financial resources. Therefore, it is highly desirable to establish an effective and reasonable immunized agent against leishmaniasis. There have been advances to understand underlying immune mechanisms using a variety of candidate antigens, including attenuated live parasites, crude antigens, pure or recombinant Leishmania proteins, Leishmania genes encoding protective proteins, also, immune system activators from the saliva of flies. However, there is still no protective vaccine against different types of human leishmaniasis. In recent years, more focus on leishmaniasis vaccine studies has been forced on cutaneous leishmaniasis. In this review, we will take a look at the works done or being done concerning this issue. Previous studies have shown that different ways the vaccine enters the body play an important role in making protective immunity. The process of identifying articles was developed using the following electronic databases in which the immune response and vaccines of leishmaniasis were assayed: PubMed, SciELO, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science databases.