Leishmania sand fly-transmission is disrupted by Delftia tsuruhatensis TC1 bacteria

Pedro Cecilio (), Luana A. Rogerio, Tiago D. Serafim, Kristina Tang, Laura Willen, Eva Iniguez, Claudio Meneses, Luis F. Chaves, Yue Zhang, Luiza dos Santos Felix, Wei Huang, Melina Garcia Guizzo, Pablo Castañeda-Casado, Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, Jesus G. Valenzuela, Janneth Rodrigues () and Fabiano Oliveira ()
Additional contact information
Pedro Cecilio: National Institutes of Health
Luana A. Rogerio: National Institutes of Health
Tiago D. Serafim: National Institutes of Health
Kristina Tang: National Institutes of Health
Laura Willen: National Institutes of Health
Eva Iniguez: National Institutes of Health
Claudio Meneses: National Institutes of Health
Luis F. Chaves: Indiana University
Yue Zhang: National Institutes of Health
Luiza dos Santos Felix: National Institutes of Health
Wei Huang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Melina Garcia Guizzo: National Institutes of Health
Pablo Castañeda-Casado: GSK; Tres Cantos
Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Jesus G. Valenzuela: National Institutes of Health
Janneth Rodrigues: GSK; Tres Cantos
Fabiano Oliveira: National Institutes of Health

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Most human pathogenic Leishmania species are zoonotic agents; therefore, sand fly-based control strategies are essential to prevent parasite circulation. Here, we used the Delftia tsuruhatensis TC1 strain, that inhibits the development of Plasmodium in mosquitoes, but in the context of Leishmania-infected sand flies. We show that D. tsuruhatensis TC1 colonizes the midgut of Phlebotomus duboscqi sand flies and impacts the development of L. major parasites, independently of the colonization timing. This phenotype is likely an indirect consequence of D. tsuruhatensis colonization, related with the induction of sand fly gut dysbiosis. Importantly, Leishmania-infected, D. tsuruhatensis-fed sand flies are less able to transmit L. major parasites and cause disease in mice. Modelling supports the disruption of disease endemicity in the field, highlighting D. tsuruhatensis as a promising agent for the control of leishmaniasis.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58769-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58769-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58769-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().