title: Leishmania major: Genetic Profiles of the Parasites Isolated from Chabahar, Southeastern Iran by PPIP-PCR.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Leishmaniasis is important vector-borne parasitic disease worldwide, caused by the genusLeishmania. The objective of the current study was to identify genetic polymorphism inL. major, one of the species causing cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), isolated from southeastern Iran, using Permissively Primed Intergenic Polymorphic-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PPIP-PCR) method.
  
  
  METHODS
  Overall, 340 patients with suspected CL were examined. They referred to the Central Laboratory in Chabahar, Iran during Apr 2013 to Feb 2014. Microscopic examination of Giemsa-stained slides from lesions as well as aspirates cultured in Novy- Mac Neal-Nicolle (NNN) Media was employed in order to diagnose CL in these patients. Our analyses detected 86 suspected subjects as having CL from which 35 isolates were cultured successfully. PPIP-PCR method was performed on extracted genomic DNA from selected isolates in order to determine the genetic polymorphism amongL. majorisolates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The electrophoresis patterns demonstrated two genetic profiles including A or A1 patterns between all samples tested. Frequency of A and A1 sub-types were 33 (94.3%) and two (5.7%), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both host and parasite factors may contribute to the clinical profile of human leishmaniasis in the endemic foci of the disease. Here we showed that genetic variations pertaining to theLeishmaniaparasites might determine, in part, the clinical outcomes of human leishmaniasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Parasitology, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran; Department of Medical Parasitology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharifi-Rad
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Parasitology, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dabirzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Parasitology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Iraj
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sharifi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Parasitology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Babaei
keywords: Genetic polymorphism; Iran; Leishmania major; PPIP-PCR