Comparative studies of the interaction between lectins and Leishmania in agglutination tests and enzyme-linked lectin-biotin assays (ELLBA).

It was demonstrated that soybean agglutinin and peanut agglutinin aggregated all the investigated species of Leishmania, including virulent and avirulent members of L. major in agglutination tests. Concanavalin A and Pisum sativum agglutinin were shown to aggregate L. species ZMA and L. major but showed no effect on L. gymnodactyli and L. mexicana amazonensis which were aggregated by wheat germ agglutinin, an extract from Ulex europaeus and Ricinus communis. There was no correlation between the results of ELLBA studied in agglutination tests. The results indicate that the surfaces of Leishmania strains and species are heterogeneous with respect to lectin binding. There are possibly two subsets of lectin receptors on the surface structures of Leishmania cells.