1887

Abstract

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), a neglected tropical disease, is reported to be prevalent in tribal villages located in the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve forests of Western Ghats, Kerala state, India. We carried out an investigation to characterize the species of parasites involved in these infections prevalent among one of the oldest human tribal populations in India. Skin aspirates collected from 13 clinically diagnosed cases were subjected to histopathological investigations, serological rapid tests using ‘rk39’ and molecular diagnostics. Clinical manifestations recorded among the patients were hypo-pigmented erythematous nodules/papules on limbs and other parts of the body. Histopathological investigations of these skin lesions among patients showed Leishman–Donovan bodies in macrophages. None of the patients were found to be positive for rk39 tests, which detect active visceral leishmaniasis. Using three different genetic markers [kinetoplast minicircle DNA, 3′ UTR region of heat-shock protein 70 (Hsp70) and Hsp70 gene] we identified the parasite species involved in these infections to be . The 6-phosphogluconate (6-PGDH) gene sequences of the parasite isolates from Western Ghats indicated close genetic relatedness to isolates reported from Sri Lanka, also causing CL. This could be cited as another instance of ‘local endemism’ of organisms in this single ‘bio-geographic unit’.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.076695-0
2015-02-01
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/64/2/157.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.076695-0&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Aara N., Khandelwal K., Bumb R. A., Mehta R. D., Ghiya B. C., Jakhar R., Dodd C., Salotra P., Satoskar A. R. 2013; Clinco-epidemiologic study of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. Am J Trop Med Hyg 89:111–115 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Alvar J., Vélez I. D., Bern C., Herrero M., Desjeux P., Cano J., Jannin J., den Boer M.the WHO Leishmaniasis Control Team 2012; Leishmaniasis worldwide and global estimates of its incidence. PLoS ONE 7:e35671 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Aransay A. M., Scoulica E., Tselentis Y. 2000; Detection and identification of Leishmania DNA within naturally infected sand flies by seminested PCR on minicircle kinetoplastic DNA. Appl Environ Microbiol 66:1933–1938 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Badaró R., Benson D., Eulálio M. C., Freire M., Cunha S., Netto E. M., Pedral-Sampaio D., Madureira C., Burns J. M. et al. 1996; rK39: a cloned antigen of Leishmania chagasi that predicts active visceral leishmaniasis. J Infect Dis 173:758–761 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bossuyt F., Meegaskumbura M., Beenaerts N., Gower D. J., Pethiyagoda R., Roelants K., Mannaert A., Wilkinson M., Bahir M. M. et al. 2004; Local endemism within the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. Science 306:479–481 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  6. CEPF 2007; Ecosystem Profile: Western Ghats and Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot. Arlington, VA: Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund; http://www.cepf.net/Documents/final.westernghatssrilanka_westernghats.ep.pdf
  7. Conservation International 2008; Biological Diversity in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. www.eoearth.org/view/article/150651/
  8. Desjeux P. 1991) Information on the Epidemiology and Control of the Leishmaniases by Country or Territory. WHO/LEISH 91.30. Geneva: World Health Organization;
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Gajapathy K., Peiris L. B. S., Goodacre S. L., Silva A., Jude P. J., Surendran S. N. 2013; Molecular identification of potential leishmaniasis vector species within the Phlebotomus (Euphlebotomus) argentipes species complex in Sri Lanka. Parasit Vectors 6:302 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Kesavan A., Parvathy V. K., Thomas S., Sudha S. P. 2003; Indigenous visceral leishmaniasis: two cases from Kerala. Indian Pediatr 40:373–374[PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Kumar V., Kishore K., Palit A., Keshari S., Sharma M. C., Das V. N., Shivakumar S., Roy M. S., Sinha N. K. et al. 2001; Vectorial efficacy of Phlebotomus argentipes in Kala-azar endemic foci of Bihar (India) under natural and artificial conditions. J Commun Dis 33:102–109[PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kumar R., Bumb R. A., Ansari N. A., Mehta R. D., Salotra P. 2007; Cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania tropica in Bikaner, India: parasite identification and characterization using molecular and immunologic tools. Am J Trop Med Hyg 76:896–901[PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Montalvo A. M., Fraga J., Monzote L., Montano I., De Doncker S., Dujardin J. C., Van der Auwera G. 2010; Heat-shock protein 70 PCR-RFLP: a universal simple tool for Leishmania species discrimination in the New and Old World. Parasitology 137:1159–1168 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Myers N., Mittermeier R. A., Mittermeier C. G., da Fonseca G. A. B., Kent J. 2000; Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403:853–858 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Ranasinghe S., Zhang W.-W., Wickremasinghe R., Abeygunasekera P., Chandrasekharan V., Athauda S., Mendis S., Hulangamuwa S., Matlashewski G., Pratlong F. 2012; Leishmania donovani zymodeme MON-37 isolated from an autochthonous visceral leishmaniasis patient in Sri Lanka. Pathog Glob Health 106:421–424 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Requena J. M., Chicharro C., García L., Parrado R., Puerta C. J., Cañavate C. 2012; Sequence analysis of the 3′-untranslated region of HSP70 (type I) genes in the genus Leishmania: its usefulness as a molecular marker for species identification. Parasit Vectors 5:87 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Rohling E. J., Fenton M., Jorissen F. J., Bertrand P., Ganssen G., Caulet J. P. 1998; Magnitudes of sea-level lowstands of the past 500, 000 years. Nature 394:162–165 [View Article]
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Sharma M. I. D., Suri J. C., Kalra N. L. 1973; Studies on cutaneous leishmaniasis in India. I. A note on the current status of cutaneous leishmaniasis in north-western India as determined during 1973. J Commun Dis 5:73–79
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Sharma N. L., Mahajan V. K., Kanga A., Sood A., Katoch V. M., Mauricio I., Singh C. D., Parwan U. C., Sharma V. K., Sharma R. C. 2005; Localized cutaneous leishmaniasis due to Leishmania donovani and Leishmania tropica: preliminary findings of the study of 161 new cases from a new endemic focus in himachal pradesh, India. Am J Trop Med Hyg 72:819–824[PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Sharma U., Redhu N. S., Mathur P., Singh S. 2007; Re-emergence of visceral leishmaniasis in Gujarat, India. J Vector Borne Dis 44:230–232[PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Simi S. M., Anish T. S., Jyothi R., Vijayakumar K., Philip R. R., Paul N. 2010; Searching for cutaneous leishmaniasis in tribals from Kerala, India. J Glob Infect Dis 2:95–100 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Siriwardana H. V., Noyes H. A., Beeching N. J., Chance M. L., Karunaweera N. D., Bates P. A. 2007; Leishmania donovani and cutaneous leishmaniasis, Sri Lanka. Emerg Infect Dis 13:476–478 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Tiwary P., Kumar D., Singh R. P., Rai M., Sundar S. 2012; Prevalence of sand flies and Leishmania donovani infection in a natural population of female Phlebotomus argentipes in Bihar State, India. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 12:467–472 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  24. UNESCO 2012) World Heritage Site List. Paris: United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization; http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1342
  25. WHO 2013) Sustaining the Drive to Overcome Global Impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases: Second WHO Report on Neglected Tropical Diseases. Geneva: World Health Organization;
  26. Zhang C.-Y., Lu X.-J., Du X.-Q., Jian J., Shu L., Ma Y. 2013; Phylogenetic and evolutionary analysis of Chinese Leishmania isolates based on multilocus sequence typing. PLoS ONE 8:e63124 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.076695-0
Loading
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.076695-0
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error