Leishmania - Review by Kinetoplastid Biology and Disease

Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Text written to supplement more formal texts covering taxonomy, life cycles, morphology, vector distribution, symptoms, and treatment. Integrates vector, pathogen, and host biology and celebrates the diversity of approaches comprising modern parasitological research.

Review by Kinetoplastid Biology and Disease
This book is a useful reference for researchers, especially for updated information presented in table form for Leishmania spp. (pp. 3 and 14-6), sand fly vectors (pp. 34-5) and regimens of chemotherapy (pp. 135-6). Authors were well-chosen to introduce the topics of their own research presented in 11 chapters (~15 pages each). Most chapters are, by necessity, focused largely on the authors' own work or views due apparently to page limitation. This is adequate and even desirable for frequently reviewed subjects, such as sand fly biology by Killick-Kendrick; or a relatively specific or new topic, which is naturally so or made so by the authors' skills, such as membrane transport by Landfear and Leishmania infection on macrophage function by Matlashewski. These chapters are thus probably most friendly to the general reader. The same can be said to a greater or lesser extent for chapters on macrophage receptors for Leishmania by Mosser and Brittingham, chemotherapy of leishmanasis by Zilberstein and Ephros, and Leishmania-sand fly interactions by Kamhawi. The space allocated is clearly insufficient to account for all necessary details, diversities and unknowns in the epidemiology of human and canine leishmaniasis, as presented by Dedet, Shaw and Campino as well as for the complexities and uncertainties in the immunobiology of leishmaniasis by Kaye, Farrell and Campos-Neto. These chapters will undoubtedly be appreciated by the specialists, but may not be by general readers who have little or no prior exposure to the caveat or nuance of Leishmania epidemiology and immunology. An exception to this may be the chapter by Campos-Neto on vaccines, since this is an area of great interest, and since some data from work in progress were presented. The book would be improved with the addition of another chapter or two on cell and molecular biology of Leishmania to discuss, for example, some exciting discoveries and development, e. g. unique cell organelles (e. g. tubular lysosomes, acidocalcisomes), glycobiology, gene expression, genome project, molecular genetics, kinetoplast RNA editing. Some of these topics are trypanosomatid-, but not necessarily Leishmania-specific. Still, our knowledge of how parasites and hosts work at cellular and molecular levels is crucial in our attempt to understand their interactions that makes leishmaniasis so unique in all aspects from epidemiology to immunobiology. There is high hope to render these biological phenotypes less descriptive and more clearly defined by genomic, proteomic, glyconomic, metabolomic and other bioinformatic approaches.

There are several non-scientific distractions. There appears to be no copy-editing work, resulting in too many incomplete literature citations (four in pp. 147-50), and many typographic errors in the text, including two in the Preface. The Index is too brief and chapters are illustrated with very few diagrams and no photographs. These deficiencies are possibly due to a desire for rapid publication to keep chapters current and/or to cost-cutting measures established by the publisher.

Nevertheless, many readers will find interesting thoughts and insights from their own perspectives in many chapters of this book, including this reviewer with decades of exposure to Leishmania and leishmaniasis. I find Shaw's historical view on this disease in the Amazon region interesting, as described in his chapter on South American leishmaniasis. His writing on the separation of subgenous Leihsmania and Viannia clarifies some confusion of our own experimental data. It is also interesting that PKDL is thought to result from the targeting of effector function against parasites in the skin of patients recovering from VL after chemotherapy, as stated by Kaye citing the work of Theander's group. These are just several examples of my own deficiencies rectified by reading this book. Other readers will find specific points of interest according to their own backgrounds and knowledge.

The editor and serial editors deserve our appreciation and congratulations for their successful endeavour by putting this volume together for publication. There has been no hard cover book devoted to Leishmania since the late 1980's. This book may well be the last one of this kind, since in this era of information highway, the next book on Leishmania and leishmaniasis is likely to be electronically digitized for sale in the website. I will make sure to keep my copy around and urge you all to rush order a copy before it is sold.
Kwang-Poo Chng, Kinetoplastid Biology and Disease 2003, 2:9

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