Arsenite resistance in Leishmania and possible drug targets.

Pregarded as the second-most dreaded parasitic disease after malaria (WHO). Visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar, caused by Leishmania donovani, is the most fatal form of leishmaniasis afflicting millions of people worldwide. No vaccination is available against leishmaniasis and fast spreading drug resistance in these parasitic organisms is posing a major medical threat. All these emphasize the need for new drugs and molecular targets along with reappraisal of existing therapeutics. Identification and characterization of cellular targets and answering the problem of drug resistance in Leishmania has always been the main thrust of protozoal research worldwide. Model drug resistance phenotypes against drugs, viz. arsenite (an antimony related metal ion, the first line of treatment against leishmaniasis), have been widely used to address and understand mechanism of drug resistance. The present discussion is an attempt to understand the different factors associated with arsenite resistance in Leishmania.