CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS IN SYRIA

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a public health problem in Syria call for this parasite’s epidemiological and evolutionary investigation. Evaluation of its population structure by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), current gold standard for classification, has some drawbacks ,such as the lack of discriminatory power below species level, it is labour intensive and  time-consuming. In this study , MLEE has been replaced by applying PCR-RFLP of the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) for identification of leishmania at species level, on 37 samples were obtained from patients with suspected CL referred to Damascus Dermatology Hospital, 19 of them from Damascus and 18 from Aleppo. Intraspecific variation could be detected by the use of 9 hypervariable microsatellite markers. Our results showed that all samples were L. tropica. 26 genotype were detected, of wich 20 were unique to individual strains and 6 were shared by more than sample. Results also showed that there was amoderate genetic differentiation and a clear genetic flow between Aleppo and Damascus. In conclusion, in the present study, the first molecular method for typing leishmania Syrian strains was put, and for the first several epidemiological questions linked with Syrian stains could be addressed.