Owing to the importance and clinical diversity of Leishmania infantum, studying its virulence factors is promising for understanding the relationship between parasites and hosts. In the present study, differentially abundant proteins from strains with different degrees of virulence in promastigote and amastigote forms were compared using two quantitative proteomics techniques, differential gel electrophoresis and isobaric mass tag labeling, followed by identification by mass spectrometry. A total of 142 proteins were identified: 96 upregulated and 46 downregulated proteins in the most virulent strain compared to less virulent. The interaction between the proteins identified in each evolutionary form was predicted. The results showed that in the amastigote form of the most virulent strain, there was a large group of proteins related to glycolysis, heat shock, and ribosomal proteins, whereas in the promastigote form, the group consisted of stress response, heat shock, and ribosomal proteins. In addition, biological processes related to metabolic pathways, ribosomes, and oxidative phosphorylation were enriched in the most virulent strain (BH400). Finally, we noted several proteins previously found to play important roles in L. infantum infection, which showed increased abundance in the virulent strain, such as ribosomal proteins, HSP70, enolase, fructose 1,6-biphosphate aldolase, peroxidoxin, and tryparedoxin peroxidase, many of which interact with each other.

由于婴儿利什曼原虫的重要性和临床多样性，研究其毒力因子对于了解寄生虫与宿主之间的关系很有希望。在本研究中，使用两种定量蛋白质组学技术，差示凝胶电泳和等压质量标签标记，然后通过质谱鉴定，比较了来自具有不同程度毒力的前鞭毛体和无鞭毛体形式的菌株的差异丰富蛋白质。共鉴定出 142 种蛋白质：与毒性较小的菌株相比，毒性最强的菌株中有 96 种上调蛋白质和 46 种下调蛋白质。预测了每种进化形式中鉴定的蛋白质之间的相互作用。结果表明，在最强毒株的无鞭毛体形式中，有一大群与糖酵解、热休克和核糖体蛋白相关的蛋白质，而在前鞭毛体形式中，该组由应激反应、热休克和核糖体蛋白组成。此外，与代谢途径、核糖体和氧化磷酸化相关的生物过程在毒性最强的菌株 (BH400) 中得到富集。最后，我们注意到以前发现的几种蛋白质在L. infantum感染，其毒性菌株中的丰度增加，例如核糖体蛋白、HSP70、烯醇化酶、果糖 1,6-二磷酸醛缩酶、过氧化物酶和锥虫酶过氧化物酶，其中许多相互作用。