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...

The kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) of trypanosomes is comprised of thousands of DNA minicircles and 20-50 maxicircles catenated into a single network. We show that kinetoplasts isolated from the trypanosomatid species Crithidia fasciculata incorporate labeled nucleotides and support minicircle DNA replication in a manner which mimics two characteristics of minicircle replication in vivo: 1) the minicir...

We have developed a PCR assay that is capable of amplifying kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) of Leishmania donovani in a species-specific manner among Old World leishmanias. With Indian strains and isolates of L. donovani the assay was sensitive enough to detect kDNA in an amount equivalent to a single parasite or less. The extreme sensitivity of the assay was reflected in its ability to detect parasite ...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), one of the most important neglected tropical diseases, is caused by Leishmania donovani eukaryotic protozoan parasite of the genus Leishmania, the disease is prevalent mainly in the Indian sub-continent, East Africa and Brazil. VL can be diagnosed by PCR amplifying ITS1 and/or kDNA genes. The current study involved the optimization of Loop-mediated isothermal amplif...

Leishmania donovani is the known causative agent of both cutaneous (CL) and visceral leishmaniasis in Sri Lanka. CL is considered to be under-reported partly due to relatively poor sensitivity and specificity of microscopic diagnosis. We compared robustness of three previously described polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods to detect Leishmania DNA in 38 punch biopsy samples from patien...

The clinical course of Chagas' disease varies widely among different patients and geographic regions. For reasons that are not completely understood but involve host and parasite factors, some patients never develop the disease while others present cardiac and/or gastrointestinal symptoms. Many studies have been conducted in order to correlate the genetic variability of the parasites with the c...

Kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) is the mitochondrial DNA of trypanosomatids. Its major components are several thousand topologically interlocked DNA minicircles. Their replication origins are recognized by universal minicircle sequence-binding protein (UMSBP), a CCHC-type zinc finger protein, which has been implicated with minicircle replication initiation and kDNA segregation. Interactions of UMSBP wit...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is an emerging zoonosis disease in countries of the Mediterranean basin caused by Leishmania infantum. Although domestic dogs are the main vertebrate hosts, many wild carnivores have been considered playing a role in the spreading of VL. Sporadic numbers of dog and human VL have been reported in Golestan Province in North Iran. The present study was performed to dete...

• Thi-Qar province considers one of the mixed foci cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis, which is considered as widely health problem an uncontrolled disease. The phylogenetic relationship sequncing analysis L. tropica isolates have not been studied before in local area. nested PCR assay a suitable method for identifying Leishmania parasites clinical samples. Kinetoplast DNA minicircle gene has...

Canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) is endemic in northwestern Iran. This study aimed to compare real-time PCR, conventional PCR, and the direct agglutination test (DAT) for the diagnosis Leishmania infantum infection in 167 serum samples of domestic dog. Bone marrow was used for parasitological examination (smears and/or culture) in symptomatic visceral leishmaniasis, and serum was used for de...