Finally, we have designed a peptide spanning the cleavage site of CXCL1 that inhibited murine CXCL1 cleavage by L. major. Our study altogether uncovered an immune evasion strategy employed by L. major that may have evolved in rodents and highlights how parasites may utilize diverse immune evasion strategy to establish infection within its diverse mammalian hosts. The gene discussed is CXCL1; the disease is infection.