1 There is a need for standardization and simplification of the existing methods for molecular 2 detection of Leishmania infantum in the canine reservoir host. The commercially available 3 OligoC-TesT kit incorporates standardized PCR reagents with rapid oligochromatographic 4 dipstick detection of PCR products, and is highly sensitive in humans, but not yet 5 independently validated in dogs. H...

BACKGROUND Visceral Leishmaniasis is endemic to Brazil, where it is caused by Leishmania infantum (syn. Leishmania chagasi). Following parasite inoculation, individuals may experience asymptomatic infection, raising the possibility of parasite transmission through the transfusion of contaminated blood products. In the present work, we evaluated the prevalence of asymptomatic Leishmania infectio...

introduction: anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (acl) is still a major public health problem in the northeast and central parts of iran. this study was designed to compare microscopy and cultivation methods with pcr amplification of kinetoplast dna and its1 followed by rflp analysis for diagnosis of acute and chronic acl. methods: in this study, 66 patients with acl including 24 acute and 4...

A comparison of kDNA restriction-endonuclease fragment patterns from strains representing selected Endotrypanum zymodemes was done by schizodeme analysis. As the degree of heterogeneity within mini-circles varied among species or strains of Endotrypanum, the fingerprint obtained with each of the restriction enzymes was unique for each of these parasites. The data have revealed that this trypano...

Visceral leishmaniasis is a relevant public health problem worldwide. Most of the reported cases in Latin America are from Brazil. Herein we report two human cases of congenitally transmitted visceral leishmaniasis in two patients who developed symptoms during pregnancy. The diagnosis was made by visual examination of Leishmania parasites in bone marrow aspirates of the mothers and by detecting...

Different molecular-genetic methods were used to identify a cohort of Leishmania strains from natural foci of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis located in Central Asia, on the former USSR territory. The results obtained using isoenzymes, PCR, restriction fragment length polymorphisms of kDNA and molecular hybridization techniques are discussed in terms of their applicability, discrimination powe...

Mitochondrial pre-mRNAs undergo posttranscriptional RNA editing as directed by small guide RNAs (gRNAs) to produce functional mRNAs in kinetoplastid protozoa. The pre-mRNAs and gRNAs are encoded in the maxicircle and minicircle components, respectively, of the kinetoplastid mitochondrial DNA (kDNA), and editing is catalyzed by a multienzyme protein complex. Trypanosoma evansi AnTat3/3, which la...