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. 2021 Feb 26;8:649025. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.649025

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Copyright © 2021 Saini and Rai.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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The role of linoleic acid against visceral leishmaniasis (VL) infection. (A) Malnutrition is associated with VL and in malnourished individuals as well as VL patients, low levels of linoleic acid (LA) are observed (7, 8). Malnutrition leads to a relative increase in anti-inflammatory prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) compared to pro-inflammatory leukotriene B4 (LTB4) (11). Higher levels of PGE2 with lower levels of LTB4 create an immunosuppressive environment (upregulated Th2 response) in the host, which leads to the advancement of VL infection. (B) Linoleic acid plays a dual way protective role against Leishmania donovani infection (i) by inhibiting the release of Leishmania donovani derived microvesicles (LdMv) from promastigote form of the parasite (36) and (ii) by promoting the protective Th-1 type pro-inflammatory (via the 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) pathway and suppressing the Th-2 type anti-inflammatory immune response (8). LA, linoleic acid; LTB4, leukotriene B4; AA, arachidonic acid; 5-LO, 5-lipoxygenase; Mϕ, macrophage; VL, visceral leishmaniasis; PGE2, prostaglandin E2; PGES, prostaglandin E2 synthases; LdMv, Leishmania donovani derived microvesicles.