{
  "id": 17311115,
  "title": "Iron as a critical determinant for survival, oxidative stress, and infectivity of Leishmania parasites",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/iron-as-a-critical-determinant-for-survival-oxidative-stress-and",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-30T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.29.762707v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Iron's significance in the survival, oxidative stress response, and infectiousness of Leishmania parasites is paramount. These unicellular organisms extract vital iron within host macrophages. Researchers examined the effects of iron on parasite growth, apoptosis, oxidative stress, and the expression of proteins related to ROS, thiol metabolism, Fe-S clusters, and infectivity within macrophages. Results showed that optimal iron levels boost parasite proliferation, while excess leads to toxicity, culminating in DNA fragmentation and caspase-like activity. Boosting iron intake enhances the parasites' resilience to oxidative stress by reducing ROS and elevating total intracellular thiol content, a relationship dependent on concentration. Conversely, iron deficiency escalates ROS levels and reduces thiol content, throwing off redox balance. To validate these findings, parasites were exposed to menadione, which allowed iron-supplemented cells to better withstand oxidative stress compared to depleted cells. Additional iron availability escalated the expression of crucial metabolic proteins, Fe-S clusters (Nbp35, Frataxin, IScU), and thiol metabolism (TryS, TryR, CS, SAT, cTXN, cTXNPx). However, under iron-depleted conditions, these proteins were downregulated, with frataxin being the notable exception. In vitro infectivity tests revealed that iron supplementation boosts parasite infectivity, while iron depletion diminishes infectivity rates. This research elucidates the roles of iron in Leishmania donovani's survival, redox regulation, and virulence, potentially linking cellular iron homeostasis to the pathogenesis of visceral leishmaniasis.",
  "summary": "Iron is an essential for all living organisms, including humans, and is present in RBCs & other iron-binding proteins that play crucial roles in oxygen transport, DNA synthesis & electron transport. Similarly, iron also plays a critical role in parasite biology. The unicellular Leishmania parasites scavenge essential iron inside host macrophages. We investigated the impact of iron on parasite…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}