Student Awarded

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) disease is considered as a serious world health threat as well as an economic harm worldwide and especially in low and middle-income countries. Moreover, CL is an infection that had spread to non-endemic regions. CL caused by L. major, L. infantum displays a wide spectrum of clinical and microscopic findings that has been extensively described and can be influenced by the skin immune system (SIS). Specific antibodies are very useful tools not only for diagnosis of many diseases but also to understand some particular pathological manifestations. Clinically, CL progress from a papule into a painless ulcerated and crusted nodule or papule. Microscopically, the infection progress until the formation of granuloma. The aim of this project is analyzing the skin section using confocal microscopy targeting the inflammatory immune cells and the parasite at the same time after multiple immunofluorescence labelling.  This work will allow local cells interaction analysis and better understanding of the local immune response to Leishmania with the different groups of patients classified according to the parasitic index and the inflammatory pattern. This study could represent a potential therapeutic and prophylactic target for CL caused by L. infantum and L. major.

African Supervisor

The research laboratory “Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology & Biomolecules” (LPMBB) leaded by Aïda Bouratbine, MD, Professor of Medical Parasitology at the faculty of Medicine of Tunis and the team leader of the Research Lab. The LPMBB current research group are interested in the study of parasitic diseases in Tunisia, whether endemic (leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis), emerging (cryptosporidiosis) or at risk factors of re-emergence disease (malaria). A particular interest is given to the study of leishmaniasis, which constitutes a well-developed research axis at the Pasteur Institute of Tunis. The approaches developed in the study of this medical parasitosis are methodological and transversal. They are structured in three complementary research programs concerning: 1.) Parasite eco-epidemiology: modelling the parasite transmission dynamics and understanding their risk factors. 2.) The identification of biomarkers of parasite infection and resistance to treatment and the development of biological analysis tools derived from biotechnology. 3.) The understanding of the early stages of parasitic infection and the cellular and molecular elements that fight or contribute to its development 4.) The bioinformatics modelling of the mechanisms that govern the cellular response to infection, the characterization and evaluation of parasitic molecules presenting a therapeutic or vaccine interest.

International Supervisor

Our main research activity is focused on immunopathophysiology of protozoan parasite infection with a particular focus on malaria.  Malaria is a parasitic disease caused by Plasmodium (P.) transmitted by the bite of the infected Anopheles mosquito during its blood meal. Malaria affects about 250 million individuals and has multifaceted phenotypes varying from asymptomatic to severe disease. P. falciparum, one of the five species infecting humans leads to nearly 500,000 deaths per year.  Development of severe disease could be the result of a balance between pathological versus protective immune responses influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The project aims at evaluating the inappropriateness of the immune responses leading to severe disease during the course of infection in 1) in inbred mouse strains infected with P. yoelii (acute non severe malaria, protective responses) and P. berghei ANKA (cerebral malaria, pathological responses; 2) Clinical, in P. falciparum infected patients manifesting different malaria sub-phenotypes ranging from asymptomatic to pernicious infection including appropriate controls from Gabon and Ivory Coast (children) and India (adults). Our ultimate goal is to identify disease phenotype biomarkers and/or target for new preventive immunotherapeutic strategies against severe malaria and death. The group has set up an insectary for the developmental cycle of Plasmodium in the mosquito allowing to induce infection by bites of infected mosquito to mimic at best the natural transmission of malaria.