Special Issue “Leishmaniasis: Pathophysiology, Diagnostics and Current and Emerging Therapeutic Approaches”

Leishmaniasis remains a major neglected tropical disease and a persistent challenge for biomedical research. Despite recent advances in the biological understanding of Leishmania, the clinical management of the disease continues to be constrained by diagnostic limitations, heterogeneous clinical manifestations and scarce therapeutic options—which carry the potential for toxicity and antimicrobial resistance. Notably, approximately one billion people live in areas at risk of contracting leishmaniasis, a disease that disproportionately affects populations with greater socioeconomic vulnerability.

These challenges have led to endured research into the pathophysiology of Leishmania, new diagnostic methods, and alternative therapeutic strategies. This Special Issue brings five studies together that address different aspects of these challenges. They include the role of Nrf2 signaling, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to identify cutaneous lesions, the evaluation of new selenium-containing compounds, a nanoparticle-based drug delivery system, and the detection of Leishmania braziliensis DNA after treatment.

Although these studies use different approaches, they share a common goal: improving our ability to understand, diagnose, and treat leishmaniasis. Taken together, they also show that progress in the field will require closer connections between basic research and clinical practice.