To evaluate the usefulness of a real-time PCR for Leishmania DNA in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and Leishmania coinfection, Leishmania DNA levels were measured in whole peripheral blood from 25 HIV-infected patients with clinical features suggestive of visceral leishmaniasis. Leishmania DNA was detected in 10 of 25 patients with micro...

Recently two hypotheses have been proposed for the evolution of Leishmania involving respectively a Neotropical or Paleartic origin for the species. Here an alternative proposal on the phylogeny of Leishmania based on the major divisions within the genus is presented. In this hypothesis a Neotropic origin is retained for L. (Viannia) and Paraleishmania, a recently described section within the g...

background : the goal of this study was to know the identity of leishmania species responsible of cutaneous leishmaniasis (cl) in fars province, southern iran. methods : five counties of shiraz, firouz abad, ghir-karzin, farashband and larestan were pros-pected. forty-four patients exhibiting cutaneous lesions were selected. samples collected on skin le-sions were examined both microscopically ...

background: various prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems have been developed for the production of recombinant proteins. in the present study, we used a new protein expression system based on the iranian lizard leishmania, a trypanosomatid protozoan as a host, for the expression of lpg3 gene from leishmania infantum (l.infantum). methods: the lpg3 gene was cloned in the expression cass...

The global distribution of leishmaniasis is rapidly expanding into new geographic regions. Dogs are the primary reservoir hosts for human visceral leishmaniasis caused by infection with Leishmania infantum. Natural infections with other Leishmania spp. can occur in dogs, but their role as reservoir hosts for other species of Leishmania is uncertain. Leishmania donovani is traditionally consider...

Mixed infections with different Leishmania species could explain differences in the clinical courses of these infections. On identification of Leishmania parasites from Iranian patients with mucosal leishmaniasis (ML), a patient with both oral and nasal lesions was found to be concomitantly infected with Leishmania tropica and L. major. Mixed infection was identified by PCR amplification of Lei...

Objective Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a significant disease in south-eastern Anatolia because it is prevalent among Syrian refugees. We identified the causative Leishmania species in CL patients using molecular methods. Methods Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle medium was inoculated with aspirated fluid from suspected CL lesions and tested for amastigotes with Giemsa staining. PCR amplified the internal...

Background: Currently, there are no effective vaccines against leishmaniasis, and treatment using pentavalent antimonial drugs is occasionally effective and often toxic for patients. The PTR1 enzyme, which causes antifolate drug resistance in Leishmania parasites encoded by gene pteridine reductase 1 (ptr1). Since Leishmania lacks pteridine and folate metabolism, it cannot synthesize the pterid...