Fig. 5.

Immunization with LEISH-F3+/GLA-SE reduces parasite burden in hamsters infected with L. donovani during sand fly blood meals. In a, hamsters were injected a total of three times with 5 ug protein formulated with GLA-SE (step 1), then 1 month after the final immunization were infected by bites of L. donovani-infected sand flies (step 2), then monitored (step 3). In b, hamster weights were checked just prior to exposure to sand flies then monitored throughout the infection phase of the experiment. Each point depicts the group mean at the given time. In c, spleens were removed 9 months after parasite inoculation and burdens were determined by qPCR. Each point represents the burden of each individual animal, with the bars indicating the median of 11–12 hamsters per group. Statistical significance was calculated by Wilcoxon-signed rank sum analysis. Data are representative of results obtained in two similar experiments. The images are the authors own renderings