Detection of Leishmania RNA virus (LRV) in Leishmania species from Turkey

Leishmaniasis, one of the most important infectious diseases, has been known for many years in the New World Leishmania species, but there is limited research on the Old World species. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the presence of LRV in Leishmania species in Turkey. In order to obtain the viral double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), isolation of gDNA, RQ-DNAse application, RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, amplification of the target region with appropriate primers were applied. The sequence results were compared to the previous LRV specimens. Of the 29 samples tested (24 Leishmania tropica, 3 L. major and 2 L. infantum), 10 (7 L. tropica, 3 L. major) were found to be positive for LRV. BLAST analysis showed that these viruses were LRV2-1. With this study LRV was detected in L. tropica for the first time in the world.