Continual renewal and replication of persistent Leishmania major parasites in concomitantly immune hosts

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Significance Persistent parasites contribute to the maintenance of protective immune responses through concomitant immunity, but our understanding of how they do so has been limited by the difficulties associated with their low numbers. Our studies indicate that for Leishmania substantial parasite replication occurs in persistent infections, with most parasites found within activated antigen-presenting cells. Parasite replication serves to maintain the infection and likely also provides a constant source of parasite antigens for immune stimulation and the maintenance of protective immunity. Collectively, these studies suggest a framework to understand concomitant immunity that may be applicable to other persistent pathogens.