The molecular detection of leishmaniasis agent in Iraqi patients

One of the most common parasitic diseases is cutaneous leishmaniasis, which is seen especially in the Middle East and North Africa and in the Old World. Female sand flies carry the disease. Visitors, immigrants, and military members are infected with these flies every year. The disease begins as an erythematous papule developing on exposed body areas bitten by sand flies. The papule turns into an ulcerated and crusty nodule as it enlarges over the course of time. In most cases, it has distinct and raised contours. When the patient has come into contact with a sand fly nest, several lesions may be taken into consideration. Secondary bacterial or fungal infections may develop over an ulcerated lesion. The ulcer is usually large; however, it does not cause pain. In the light of these information, the aim of this thesis study is to determine the prevalence of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iraq, as well as to distinguish between the three species of this genus using the PCR-RFLP. The findings revealed that 84 of the 100 samples taken from cutaneous leishmaniasis patients tested positive for the parasite. The RFLP-PCR technique revealed that 41 samples were L. infantum, 24 were L. major, and 19 were L. tropica. The 18sRNA gene in the positive samples was amplified again using PCR and then it was sequenced. The results of the sequencing showed that it was an exact match (100%) with the species in the NCBI database.