Isoenzyme electrophetic characterization of Leishmania major, the causative agent of zoonotic cutaneous Leishmaniasis in North and West Saudi Arabia.
Several expeditions were carried out to four localities (Al-Madinah Almona-warah, Tabouk region, Al-Jouf and Northern Frontiers regions) in Northern and Western Saudi Arabia for sampling zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) cases from patients and rodents. Biopsy samples were collected from 51 patients complaining of skin lesions, most of which (40 or 78.4%) proved to be ZCL. Amastigotes were detected in 33 patients (64.7%), but only 30 (58.9%) gave successful growth of promastigotes in the culture media. The positive cases were Saudis 14(35%) and non-Saudis 26 (65%). Five species of rodents were caught, Meriories libycus, Psammomys obesus, Rattus rattus, jaculus and Hystrix indica. The first species was the most dominant (90%) in which Leishmania parasites were detected. The Leishmania isolates from man and rodents were identified by isoenzyme electrophoresis and proved to be Zymodeme LON-4.
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia. saaddajem@kku.edu.sa
Dajem Saad M
DS
Bin
Osama M S
OM
Mostafa
Abdullmohsen
A
Abdoon
Saleh A S
SA
Al-Quraishy
Ahmed A
AA
Alqahtani
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000235:genetics; D018320:Leishmania major / Q000145:classification* / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008875:Middle Aged; D012377:Rodentia; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000469:parasitology
D007527:Isoenzymes