E-Mail According to the results of research led by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), one the various strategies deployed by the Leishmania parasite to avoid triggering the human immune system is to activate the SHP-1 protein. The parasite does this by secreting a molecule capable of interacting with the Mincle receptor expressed by antigen-presenting dendritic cells that help induce T-lymphocytes to trigger an immune response. "For dendritic cells to be able to present antigens to T-lymphocytes, they must also have been infected by the pathogen, or must acquire 'remains' from another infected cell. This latter process is called 'cross-antigen presentation' and requires specialised enzymatic machinery", explained Salvador Iborra, a researcher in the Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology and ENT at the UCM.