Leishmania and the macrophage: a marriage of inconvenience

The Leishmania protozoan successfully parasitizes the macrophage of its vertebrate host. Considerable interest now centres on the identification of the parasite ligands and the macrophage receptors to which they bind. In this article, David Russell and Patricia Talamas-Rohana discuss the attachment mechanisms of Leishmania promastigotes to macrophages, and the possible role of complement components in their opsonization.