Evaluation of molecular genotyping in clinical and epidemiological study of leishmaniasis in Sudan

In Sudan the leishmania belt extends from Gadarif region from east, where visceral leismaniasis is a predominant form to Darfor region to the west. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is mainly found in northern and western regions beside scattered foci in central part of the country. This study was conducted during the period Sep. 2009 – Sep. 2010 in the Green Valley villages that situated in Rashad region, South Kordofan State, 600 kms west from the capital Khartoum. The objective of this study was to evaluate the value of using molecular genotyping in clinic-epidemiological study. In this study, the proved PCR positive villager samples (32 out of 332) using leishmania specific primers AJS3 & DB8 (Barker, Cambridge) were tested for molecular genotyping of the parasite using; Mini-exon (ME), Glucophosphate (GP 63), internal transcript spacer (ITS) and random amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD). These selected genes targeted PCR proved to be not sensitive to detect leishmania parasite from patient (blood spotted filter paper samples) compared with cultured WHO reference samples, but ITS, GP 63 and RAPD tools showed promising results in identification and typing of leishmania parasites, specially if probing technique used. Molecular genotyping are powerful tools that need to be evaluated in field conditions in clinic-epidemiological studies.