BACKGROUND Leishmaniasis is endemic in Iran. Different species of Leishmania (L.) parasites are causative agents of this disease. Correct identification of Leishmania species is important for clinical studies, prevention, and control of the diseases. Mix up of Leishmania isolates is possible in the laboratory, so there is need for verification of species for isolates of uncertain identity. Diff...

The importance of the genus Thrichomys in the retention of infection and transmission of Leishmania species is supported by previous studies that describe an ancient interaction between caviomorphs and trypanosomatids and report the natural infection of Thrichomys spp. Moreover, these rodents are widely dispersed in Brazil and recognized as important hosts of other tripanosomatids. Our main pur...

Previous hypotheses of Leishmania evolution are undermined by limitations in the phylogenetic reconstruction method employed or due to the omission of key parasites. In this experiment, sequences of the gene encoding the DNA polymerase alpha catalytic polypeptide (POLA) were analysed phylogenetically in combination with those encoding the RNA polymerase II largest subunit gene (RPOIILS) to infe...

BACKGROUND Caviomorph rodents, some of the oldest Leishmania spp. hosts, are widely dispersed in Brazil. Despite both experimental and field studies having suggested that these rodents are potential reservoirs of Leishmania parasites, not more than 88 specimens were analyzed in the few studies of natural infection. Our hypothesis was that caviomorph rodents are inserted in the transmission cycl...

Three species of L. tropica, L. major and L. infantum are known as main causal agents of leishmaniasis have been reported in Iran. Since cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in North East of Iran, in the present work, 50 Leishmania positive isolates from human cases in Mashhad (Center of Razavi province, North East of Iran), were genotyped by means of polymerase chain reaction-restriction f...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to describe the major evolutionary historical events among Leishmania, sandflies, and the associated animal reservoirs in detail, in accordance with the geographical evolution of the Earth, which has not been previously discussed on a large scale. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Leishmania and sandfly classification has always been a controversial matter...

background: leishmania homologue of receptors for activated c kinase(lack) antigen is a 36-kda protein, which provokes a very early immune response against leishmania infection. there are several reports on the expression of lack through different life-cycle stages of genus leishmania , but only a few of them have focused on l.tropica . methods: the present study provides details of the cloning...

We used the cysteine proteinase B (cpb) gene family of the trypanosomatid genus Leishmania as a target to develop rapid, specific, and easy-to-use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to discriminate Leishmania infantum, Leishmania donovani, Leishmania tropica, Leishmania aethiopica, and Leishmania major. Identification of all 5 Old World species and validation of intraspecies variability are ...