Detection of Cutaneous Leishmanioasis Isolated From Iranian Patients By Using ITS1 Gene and Apol Enzyme via PCR-RFLP Molecular Method

Leishmaniasis is one of the important endemic diseases in Iran and is divided into cutaneous and visceral Leishmaniasis. Since determining the type of the parasite is effective in the controlling and preventing of the disease، we sought to find a method for the diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis.

In this research 35 cutaneous leishmaniasis patients from different part of Iran [8 infectious cases from the province of Isfe-han and its margins namely، Ardestan، Kashan and Samiram; 2 cases from Kerman (the foci of the infection was Sirjan)، 4 cases from Khorasan، 2 cases from Mashhad، 2 cases from Esfraeian، 2 casese from Boshehr، 3 cases from Semnan (the foci of the infection was Damghan) and 1 case from ghom] were collected. After preparing the direct slide DNA extracted from all patients، polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was done for the gene of ITS1.

The results of PCR indicated that all of the cases were positive and showed DNA fragment bands in the size range of 69-350 bp. The results from restriction fragment length of polymorphism (RFLP) indicated that 94% (33 persons) and 6% (2 persons) of the cases were detected as Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica، respectively. Discussion &

These results showed that PCR-RFLP method by using Apo1gene is suitable for the diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by leishmania species.