Mini-Exon Genotyping of Leishmania Species in Khuzestan Province, Southwest Iran

Abstract

Background: Leishmaniasis is a protozoan disease cause by Leishmania genus. Anthroponotic and zoono­tic cutaneous leishmaniasis are endemic in Iran. The aim of this study was to identify the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis by mini-exon gene in five regions of Khuzestan Province, southwest of Iran. Methods: From 2007 to 2008 in this cross-sectional study, cutaneous samples were collected from patients referred to Health Centers and Hospitals of the Khuzestan Province for cutaneous leishmaniasis diagnosis and cultured in Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle (NNN) and RPMI 1640. The propagated promastigotes were harvested and Leishmania species of cutaneous leishmaniasis were identified by RFLP and DNA sequencing of the PCR generated fragments. Results: L. major and L. tropica were the causative agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis by predomi­nantly of L. major species. The alignment of the mini-exon sequencing isolates with re­ported sequencing of L. major and L. tropica revealed 92%-99% identity. Conclusion: Our study showed that mini-exon PCR-RFLP was useful method to identify the causa­tive species of cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Keywords

• Cutaneous leishmaniasis
• Mmini-exon
• RFLP
• Sequencing
• Iran