BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Malnutrition and visceral leishmaniasis are major public health problems that are responsible for millions of deaths across many countries. Leishmaniasis development and progression are associated with the host immune status. In this context, malnutrition can directly affect the course of leishmaniasis, impairing several components of the immune system. Moreover, malnutrition directly interferes with the tropism of METHODS: BALB/c mice were fed either a control or restricted diet, infected with RESULTS: Compared with control mice, malnourished and refed mice presented a lower parasitic load in the spleen, which correlated with spleen atrophy, and the refeeding process partially reversed but did not fully rescue the infection status. Both groups presented a high parasitic load in the liver. Marasmic malnutrition appeared to impair the efficacy of leishmaniasis treatment
however, the refed groups exhibited a robust decrease in the parasite load, which was comparable to that in the control group subjected to treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggested that marasmic malnutrition affects the establishment and progression of