التنميط الجزيئي لذراري الليشمانية السورية

Abstract EN

The current rapid spread of cutaneous leishmaniases in the Old World including Syria and the complexity of its clinical spectrum call for this parasite’s epidemiological and evolutionary investigation.

Evaluation of its population structure by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), current gold standard for classification, has some drawbacks, such as the lack of discriminatory power below species level, its labour intensive and time-consuming, and it can only be performed in specialized laboratories.

In this study, MLEE has been replaced by applying PCR-RFLP of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) for identification of leishmania at species level, on 37 samples were obtained from patients with suspected CL referred to Damascus Dermatology hospital, 19 of them from Aleppo and 18 from Damascus.

These samples were further studied by multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT) after it was optimization and primers testing.

Seventeen primer pairs were tested to identify panel of microsatellite loci that are polymorphic within leishmania species.

Our results showed that all samples were L.

tropica.

26 genotypes were detected, of which 20 were unique to individual strains and 6 were shared by more than sample.

Results also showed that there was a moderate genetic differentiation and a clear genetic flow between Aleppo and Damascus.

In conclusion MLMT exhibits a highly discriminatory power and it currently seems to be the best candidate for becoming the gold standard for strain differentiation.