Detection of Leishmania major DNA within wild caught Phlebotomus papatasi and species composition of sand flies in endemic focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis, in western Iran

Abstract

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of the most important public health problem in many developing countries. The present study was conducted to determine the vector(s), the parasite and the species composition of sand flies in the Dehloran County during May-November 2012. Sand flies were collected by sticky traps and mounted in Puri's medium for species identification. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques of kDNA, ITS1-rDNA, followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were used for identification of DNA of Leishmania parasites in infected sand flies. A total of 82443 specimens comprising 15 species of sand flies (5 Phlebotomus and 10 Sergentomyia) were collected and identified. The species of Phlebotomus papatasi was dominant in outdoor and indoor resting places. Among the 280 specimens of female P. papatasi tested by PCR of kDNA, ITS1-rDNA genes of the parasite followed by RFLP, only 5 of them (1.8 %) were positive to Leishmania major parasites. This is the first molecular detection of leishmania infection of P. papatasi to L. major in this region. The results indicated that, P. papatasi was only species found infected by L. major and the principal vector of disease agent to human.

Detection of Leishmania donovani DNA within Field-Caught Phlebotomine Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Three Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Endemic Foci of Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka

“…Investigations on the epidemiology of leishmaniasis and bioecology of sand flies are important factors for disease management and to plan control programmes [29,30]. However, the abundance of sand flies in a leishmaniasis endemic region is merely not sufficient to characterize them as vectors responsible for transmitting leishmaniasis.…”

Molecular Identification of Leishmania Parasites in Sand Flies (Diptera, Psychodidae) of an Endemic Foci in Poldokhtar, Iran

“…Furthermore, the predominance of CL due to L. major has already been confirmed mainly in Khuzestan, Kermanshah, and Ilam in previous studies too. [ 11 12 ] These provinces are the closest ones to our study area, so the results could be overlapped together. There are some other studies on leishmaniasis in different neighborhood regions of Poldokhtar, but we have mentioned just the ones that are more similar to our investigation in goals, methods, and findings.…”

“…The results of his study have been indicated that P. papatasi is only species found infected by L. major and is the principal vector of the disease. [ 12 ]…”

Development of a Diagnostic Marker for Phlebotomus papatasi to Initiate a Potential Vector Surveillance Program in North America

“…Here, we demonstrate the use of a similar PCR-based assay as an effective form of surveillance in the detection of non-endemic P. papatasi sand flies. PCR-RFLP has been used extensively in regions where leishmaniasis is endemic as a means of identification for both sand fly [38,39,40,41,42] and Leishmania [27,28,29] species. In addition to PCR-RFLP, DNA barcoding [43,44,45,46,47] and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry [48,49,50] have also been used to differentiate sand fly species.…”

“…Leishmania major is ingested by P. papatasi in its amastigote form, where it replicates and is later injected into a mammalian host as a promastigote [21]. Phlebotomus papatasi comprises either a majority or a significant portion of sand fly trap captures in the Middle East and Egypt [22,23,24,25,26], including Iran where CL is especially prevalent [27,28,29]. Currently, P. papatasi has not yet been found in the New World.…”