Identification of Leishmania donovani Isolates by Polymerase Chain Reaction

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is endemic of Iraq in both cutaneous and visceral form. The available tools for diagnosis and detection of Leishmania are nonspecific and may interfere with other species. In this study, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has been used to identify Iraqi isolate of visceral leishmaniasis (MHOM/ IQ/2005/MRU15) which a previously diagnosed by classical serological tests. PCR amplification was carried out using species-specific primers of Leishmania donovani. Four primer pairs of mini-circle DNA and ITS-1 were used.13A/13B, which is used to identify Leishmania as a genus, NM12, LITSR/L5.8S and BHUL18S, were used to detect the sub species of L. donovani. The result of PCR amplification of 13A/13B kDNA revealed that a band of ~ 120 bp. NM12, LITSR/L5.8S and BHUL18S primer pairs demonstrated bands of 204 bp, 320 bp and 311 bp, respectively. The results of this study are recommended to be used for identification of visceral leishmaniasis identification instead of time consuming and non-specific classical methods.