L. donovani clinical isolate
Leishmania donovani
During the year 1998-2000, resistance to the widely used antimonial drug sodium antimony gluconate (SAG) had reached alarming heights in India. At this time we had cultivated many isolates collected from the eastern region of India. The diagnostic criteria for Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) were the presence of LD bodies (Leishman Donovan) in splenic aspirations performed and graded as per standard criteria. Isolate 2001, isolated on 01.02.2000, from Balia, Uttar Pradesh, responded to SAG therapy. Splenic aspirates were collected and adapted to culture. Assay for in vitro drug sensitivity to sodium antimony gluconate (SAG) was done. The virulence and level of susceptibility or resistance of these isolates was also confirmed in vivo, by infection in experimental animals. Species identity of these promastigotes was confirmed to be similar to the donovani in the sequence based RFLP of their single-copy protein-coding gene, N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate transferase.