[Differentiation among cutaneous Leishmania species upon amplification of a sequence of dipeptidyl peptidase III...

Leishmaniasis are a group of vector-born, parasitic diseases caused by protozoan of the Leishmania genus, that includes visceral or cutaneous forms. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) refers to a group of diseases because of the variability of clinical manifestations, caused by a large number of Leishmania species. In Tunisia, three different forms of CL are encountered, having different causal agents L. infantum, L. major and L. tropica. For the purpose of this study, we assessed the potential of polymorphic sites in dipeptidyl peptidase III (DPP III) encoding gene to differentiate among Leishmania species encountered in Tunisia. A pair of forward and reverse primers amplifying a 664 bp DPP III sequence were designed in regions including 2 mutations in the forward primer and 1 in the reverse, and were used to amplify DNA from diverse species of Leishmania parasites including L. infantum, L. major, L. tropica, L. donovani, L. chagasi, L. arabica, L. aethiopica and L. tarentolae. Amplification was positive for all tested Leishmania species except for L. infantum, L. chagasi, L. archibaldi, L. donovani and L. tarentolae. In case of cutaneous Leishmania species encountered in Tunisia, amplification was positive for both L. tropica and L. major and negative in case of L. infantum. This ability to differentiate L. infantum from L. tropica/L. major constitutes a first step in the taxonomy of cutaneous species prevalent in Tunisia.