ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is one of wobbling endemic disease in Iraq, that cause intracellular obligate protistan parasite returned to the genusLeishmania. This study is aimed to identify epidemiology of CL, detect the prevalence of Leishmania tropica and find the phylogenetic relationship. METHODOLOGY: The current study was conducted in the main hospitals of Thi-Qar province-south of Iraq for period from November 2018 to October 2019. Nested-PCR was used to amplify kinetoplast minicircle fragments DNA. RESULTS: It was recorded 247 clinical cases with CL, the infections of males were higher than females, while infection rate appeared gradual reduction with age progress. Furthermore, the most CL infections were as single lesions and occurred in December. The infections of upper limbs were high when compared with other body regions. The molecular diagnosis showed L. tropica was more frequently. DNA sequences of kDNA gene of L. tropica showed confirmative genetic detection of local isolates using NCBI-Blast data and phylogenetic tree analysis after comparison with global recorded isolates. The local L. tropica isolates showed genetically closed related to NCBI-Blast L. tropica with accession number AB678350.1. Generally, the analysis of kDNA nitrogen bases sequences showed that all of samples were consistent with those recorded at the NCBI. CONCLUSION: The kDNA minicircle sequences analysis results showed mismatching of the local isolates decrease whenever approached from the Iranian border. In addition, genetic heterogeneity diagnosis is important for detection of therapy, control and epidemiological studies.
Subject(s)
Leishmania tropica , Animals , DNA, Kinetoplast/genetics , Female , Iran , Iraq/epidemiology , Leishmania tropica/genetics , Male , PhylogenyABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the present status of amoebiasis in Thi-Qar Province in southern Iraq, and to determine the presence of Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar with nested and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). METHODS: Epidemiological data were obtained from the public health department of the Thi-Qar Health Office (2015-2020). Eighty stool samples were also randomly collected from patients ≤12 year of age with diarrhea at 2 hospitals between the beginning of February 2020 and the end of October 2020. These samples were selected after microscopy to identify the 18S rRNA gene in Entamoeba DNA. RESULTS: Of the 341,554 cases of intestinal parasitic infections, 38,004 (11.1%) individuals were recorded as having amoebiasis, which accounted for the highest proportion of infections in 2015 (26.1%) and the lowest in 2020 (8.1%). Amoebiasis was distributed among all age groups, with the age group of 5-14 years accounting for the highest proportion (27.3%). In molecular testing, 42 (52.5%) out of 80 samples were positive for the 18S rRNA gene (888 bp). Using nested PCR, E. histolytica (439 bp) was detected in 25 (31.3%) samples and E. dispar (174 bp) in 14 (17.5%), while using real-time PCR, E. histolytica and E. dispar were detected in 28 (35.0%) and 15 (18.8%) samples, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Epidemiological data confirmed that amoebiasis is endemic in this province, and is not limited to certain months. Our study confirms the applicability of molecular identification to detect pathogenic and non-pathogenic Entamoeba to prescribe the appropriate drug.
