Genetic variability of Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum causing human visceral leishmaniasis in the Southeastern Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Lima, Vinicius Alves
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Silva, Renata Elen Costa, Camargo, Luiz Henrique Moraes Caetano, Hiramoto, Roberto Mitsuyoshi, Leal, Elcio de Souza, Braz, Lucia Maria Almeida, Lindoso, José Angelo Lauletta
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• DOI: 10.1590/S1678-9946202365055
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/rimtsp/article/view/218904
• topic: Leishmania infantum; Human visceral leishmaniasis; kDNA minicircle; Sequencing; Polymorphism

Leishmania infantum is a protozoan that causes visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Americas and some regions of Europe. The disease is mainly characterized by hepatosplenomegaly and fever, and can be fatal. Factors related to the host and parasite can contribute to the transmission of Leishmania and the clinical outcome. The intraspecific genetic variability of L. infantum strains may be one of these factors. In this study, we evaluated the genetic variability of L. infantum obtained from bone marrow smear slides from patients in the Sao Paulo State, Brazil. For this, the minicircle of the kDNA hypervariable region was used as target by Sanger sequencing. By analyzing the similarity of the nucleotides and the maximum likelihood tree (Fasttree), we observed a high similarity (98%) among samples. Moreover, we identified four different profiles of L. infantum. In conclusion, L. infantum strains from Sao Paulo State, Brazil, showed low diversity measured by minicircle of the kDNA hypervariable region.