Bionomics and phylo-molecular analysis of Leishmania species isolated from human lesions using ITS1 genes in north-east of Iran

Reza Shafiei; Mohsen Kalantari; Masoud Yousefi; Ashok Aspatwar; Kourosh Arzamani; Arezoo Bozorgomid; Hadi Mirahmadi; Ali Soleimani; Saber Raeghi

doi:10.1007/s12639-021-01360-7

Bionomics and phylo-molecular analysis of Leishmania species isolated from human lesions using ITS1 genes in north-east of Iran

J Parasit Dis. 2021 Sep;45(3):754-761. doi: 10.1007/s12639-021-01360-7. Epub 2021 Feb 10.

Authors

Reza Shafiei¹, Mohsen Kalantari², Masoud Yousefi³, Ashok Aspatwar⁴, Kourosh Arzamani¹, Arezoo Bozorgomid⁵, Hadi Mirahmadi⁶, Ali Soleimani⁷, Saber Raeghi⁸

Affiliations

¹ Vector-Borne Diseases Research Center, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran.
² Research Center for Health Sciences, Institute of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
³ Department of Environmental Health, Mamasani Higher Education Complex for Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland.
⁵ Infectious Diseases Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
⁶ Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
⁷ Department of Public Health, Maragheh University of Medical Sciences, Maragheh, Iran.
⁸ Department of Laboratory Sciences, Maragheh University of Medical Sciences, Maragheh, Iran.

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by Leishmania species. The identification of parasite species and the type of disease is beneficial for treatment and preventive modalities. Leishmania tropica and L. major have been reported as the main etiological agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Iran. The incidence of zoonotic CL has increased and different in distinct loci of Iran. Hence, we perused the Leishmania species and its genetic traits in the North East of Iran. The investigation was conducted on 200 positive smears prepared from patients' lesions suffering from CL referred to the health care centers of northeastern provinces in Iran from 2013 to 2019. The obtained positive microscopy samples were divided to score the ranges from + 1 to + 6, of them 40 smears exhibited low-parasitemia. Leishmania species analyzed using PCR-RFLP, genetic diversity indices evaluation, phylogenetic analysis, and sequencing comparison with other species in the GeneBank based on ITS1 gene. The isolated L. major strains were similar to other Iranian isolates in this region. Pairwise fixation index (F_ST) index was statistically significant in different L. major populations and showed the genetic differences in pairwise population of different geographical locations of Iran. The current study confirmed an old pattern endemicity of zoonotic CL in North-east of Iran. Therefore, in order to assess the hybrid formation, more epidemiological, ecological, and gene polymorphism studies are needed to understand the pathogenic role of Leishmania species in Iran.

Keywords: Genetic diversity; Iran; Leishmania; Phylogenetic; Sequencing.