Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Syria

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a public health problem in Syria 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, it is labour intensive and time-consuming. In this study , MLEE has been replaced by applying PCR-RFLP of the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) for identification of leishmania at species level, on 37 samples were obtained from patients with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 Damascus and 18 from Aleppo. Intraspecific variation could be detected by the use of 9 hypervariable microsatellite markers. Our results showed that all samples were L. tropica. 26 genotype were detected, of wich 20 were unique to individual strains and 6 were shared by more than sample. Results also showed that there was amoderate genetic differentiation and a clear genetic flow between Aleppo and Damascus. In conclusion, in the present study, the first molecular method for typing leishmania Syrian strains was put, and for the first several epidemiological questions linked with Syrian stains could be addressed. INTRODUCTION: Protozoan parasites in the genus Leishmania, transmitted to humans and other vertebrate host through the bite of sand fly vectors, are the causative agents of a spectrum of human diseases collectively known as leishmaniasis 1 . Leishmaniasis can vary from a chronic skin ulcer, to erosive mucosal disease with progressive destruction of the nasopharynx and severe facial disfigurement, to a life-threatening systemic infection with hepato-splenomegly 2 . QUICK RESPONSE CODE DOI: 10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.5(4).1362-66 Article can be accessed online on: www.ijpsr.com DOI link: http://dx.doi.org/10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.5(4).1362-66 There are about 1.5 million new cases of cutaneous leishamaniasis each year of which more than 90% occur in Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria, in the `Old World', and Brazil and Peru in the `New World' 3, 4 . Syria was facing major increase in the number of registered cases to reach 58156 cases of CL in the year 2011 putting the country as the top rank among the highest countries of registered cases in the Mediterranean