BACKGROUND Human leishmaniasis is caused by more than 20 Leishmania species and has a wide range of symptoms. Our recent studies have demonstrated the essential role of sphingolipid degradation in the virulence of Leishmania (Leishmania) major, a species responsible for localized cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Old World. In this study, we investigated the function of sphingolipid degradation in...

Canine leishmaniasis is a chronic parasitic disease transmitted by small bloodsucking insects. Clinically, affected patients present with progressive wasting, slight or marked reduction in appetite, lymphadenomegaly, splenomegaly, and cutaneous lesions (e.g., dry desquamation [dry seborrhea], ulcers, nodules). A correct diagnosis is based on specific serologic and molecular tests and nonspecifi...

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been used to identify a Leishmania parasite in a cutaneous ulcer from a 27-year-old patient infected during travel in Peru. The available classical diagnostic methods could not confirm the diagnosis in a sufficiently short time. Therefore, two sets of oligonucleotides were designed and with both of them fragments of the expected size were obtained. The sequen...

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is an endemic disease and a public health problem in Hama governorate located in the central region of Syria. The aim of this study was to characterize Leishmania species isolated from human skin samples. A polymerase chain reaction, restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay, was performed on skin lesion material samples from 32 patients with confirm...

Considering the different clinical symptoms of leishmaniasis in Iran, and the wide distribution of its agent and the little information in this regard, this study was performed to characterize the responsible variants using monoclonal antibodies. A total of 156 isolates of Leishmania from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis and one isolate from rat were characterized using the standard monoc...

A molecular epidemiological study was performed using FTA card materials directly sampled from lesions of patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in the state of Lara, Venezuela, where causative agents have been identified as Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis and L. (Leishmania) venezuelensis in previous studies. Of the 17 patients diagnosed with CL, Leishmania spp. were successfully identif...

During September 2010, 133 female sand flies were caught inside houses of patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis in the focus for this disease in southeastern Tunisia and subsequently dissected. One specimen was positive for Leishmania protozoa. This sand fly species was identified as Phlebotomus sergenti, and the parasite was identified as L. tropica. This is the first report of P. sergenti inv...

Cytokine-inducible (or type 2) nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is indispensable for the resolution of Leishmania major or Leishmania donovani infections in mice. In contrast, little is known about the expression and function of iNOS in human leishmaniasis. Here, we show by immunohistological analysis of skin biopsies from Mexican patients with local (LCL) or diffuse (DCL) cutaneous leishmaniasis t...

Several studies have described the use of non-invasive collection methods, mostly based on the detection of parasite DNA, for diagnosis. However, no Leishmania specimens have been isolated from saliva. Here, we report the first isolation of Leishmania braziliensis from the saliva of humans with cutaneous leishmaniasis but without lesions on their mucosa. The isolates were obtained from salivary...