First isolation of Leishmania from Northern Thailand: case report, identification as Leishmania martiniquensis and phylogenetic position within the Leishmania enriettii complex

Thatawan Pothirat; Adisak Tantiworawit; Romanee Chaiwarith; Narissara Jariyapan; Anchalee Wannasan; Padet Siriyasatien; Khuanchai Supparatpinyo; Michelle D Bates; Godwin Kwakye-Nuako; Paul A Bates

doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0003339

First isolation of Leishmania from Northern Thailand: case report, identification as Leishmania martiniquensis and phylogenetic position within the Leishmania enriettii complex

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2014 Dec 4;8(12):e3339. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003339. eCollection 2014 Dec.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
² Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
³ Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Research Institute for Health Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
⁵ Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Since 1996, there have been several case reports of autochthonous visceral leishmaniasis in Thailand. Here we report a case in a 52-year-old Thai male from northern Thailand, who presented with subacute fever, huge splenomegaly and pancytopenia. Bone marrow aspiration revealed numerous amastigotes within macrophages. Isolation of Leishmania LSCM1 into culture and DNA sequence analysis (ribosomal RNA ITS-1 and large subunit of RNA polymerase II) revealed the parasites to be members of the Leishmania enriettii complex, and apparently identical to L. martiniquensis previously reported from the Caribbean island of Martinique. This is the first report of visceral leishmaniasis caused by L. martiniquensis from the region. Moreover, the majority of parasites previously identified as "L. siamensis" also appear to be L. martiniquensis.

Publication types

Case Reports
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Leishmania enriettii / classification
Leishmania enriettii / genetics
Leishmania enriettii / isolation & purification*
Leishmaniasis, Visceral / drug therapy
Leishmaniasis, Visceral / parasitology*
Male
Middle Aged
Phylogeny*
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Thailand

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand (TP, AT, RC, NJ, AW, KS) and by the Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, UK (MDB, GKN, PAB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.