The first record of zoonotic genes of cutaneous leishmaniasis among human, dogs, and sandflies by nested polymerase chain reaction and phylogenetic analyses

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is one of the zoonotic diseases that is caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania. AIM: The study aimed to diagnosed CL in human, dogs, and sandflies by PCR, and identification the zoonotic gene of CL by the nested PCR technique. METHODS: A total of 100 patients with CL, 237 of owned-dogs, and 147 females’ sandflies collected. RESULTS: Approximately, 88% of human samples, 95.77% skin biopsies and 20.69% of blood samples of dogs, and 40.58% of sandflies tissues were positive for L. major, while L. tropica infection was positive in 12% of human, in 4.23% symptomatic, and 6.89% asymptomatic of dogs, and in 27.54% of sandflies samples. The sequence ID of the local L. major in human were registered in NCBI as (MW421598.1, MW421599.1, MW421600.1), in dogs (MW421601.1, MW421602.1, MW421603.1), and sandflies (MW421604.1, MW421605.1, MW421606.1). While L. tropica in human were registered in NCBI as (MW421604.1, MW421605.1, MW421606.1), in dogs (MW421428.1, MW421429.1), and in sandflies (MW421430.1, MW421431.1). CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first study that contributes to the diagnosis of CL spp. in three different hosts (human, dogs, and sandflies) at the same time, particularly in Iraq and in Middle East countries.