Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis and cytochrome b gene sequencing?based identification of Leishmania isolates from different foci of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Pakistan

MARCO, JORGE DIEGO; BHUTTO, ABDUL; SOOMRO, FAROOQ; BALOCH, JAVED; BARROSO, PAOLA ANDREA; KATO, HIROTOMO; UEZATO, HIROSHI; KATAKURA, KEN; KORENAGA, MASATAKA; NONAKA, SHIGEO; HASHIGUCHI, YOSHIHISA

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Lugar: Cleveland, United States of America; Año: 2006 vol. 75 p. 261 - 266

0002-9637

Abstract. Seventeen Leishmania stocks isolated from cutaneous lesions of Pakistani patients were studied by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis and by polymerase chain reaction amplification and sequencing of the cytochrome b (Cyt b) gene. Eleven stocks that expressed nine zymodemes were assigned to L. (Leishmania) major. All of them were isolated from patients in the lowlands of Larkana district and Sibi city in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, respectively. The remaining six, distributed in two zymodemes (five and one), isolated from the highland of Quetta city, Balochistan, were identified as L. (L.) tropica. The same result at species level was obtained by the Cyt b sequencing for all the stocksexamined. No clear-cut association between the clinical features (wet or dry type lesions) and the Leishmania species involved was found. Leishmania (L.) major was highly polymorphic compared with L. (L.) tropica. This difference may be explained by the fact that humans may act as a sole reservoir of L. (L.) tropica in anthroponotic cycles; however, many wild mammals can be reservoirs of L. (L.) major in zoonotic cycles.