To specifically demonstrate that, given time, the Leishmania parasite establishes a parasitic niche that down-regulates the ability of phagocyte-T cell interactions to control infection independently of T cell recruitment, we also employed in-vitro co-culture of PEPCK-specific Th1 T cells with L. major-RFP infected monocytes, the critical phagocytic cell involved in parasite clearance at secondary sites of infection (Fig 7A; [18,19]). Here, PCK2 is linked to infection.