Life cycle of Leishmania

Leishmaniasis is transmitted by the bite of infected female phlebotomine sandflies. The sandfly injects the infective stage (ie, promastigotes) from its proboscis during blood meals (1). Promastigotes that reach the puncture wound are phagocytized by macrophages and other types of mononuclear phagocytic cells (2). In these cells, progmastigotes transform into the tissue stage of the parasite (ie, amastigotes) (3), which multiply by simple division and proceed to infect other mononuclear phagocytic cells (4). Parasite, host, and other factors affect whether the infection becomes symptomatic and whether cutaneous or visceral leishmaniasis results. Sandflies become infected by ingesting infected cells during blood meals (5,6). In sandflies, amastigotes transform into promastigotes, develop in the gut (in the hindgut for leishmanial organisms in the Viannia subgenus; in the midgut for organisms in the Leishmania subgenus) (7) and migrate to the proboscis (8).