National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Centre for Infectious Disease Control Netherlands, The Netherlands.
Exp Parasitol. 2011 Jan;127(1):36-41. doi: 10.1016/j.exppara.2010.06.024. Epub 2010 Jun 22.
Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by the unicellular Leishmania parasite. World wide millions of people are affected by this vector born disease. The disease presents itself in different clinical manifestations which are caused by specific Leishmania species. The therapeutic strategy depends on the Leishmania species involved. It is important to detect Leishmania and subsequently type the infecting species in a sensitive way using PCR. Various targets have been proposed but two seem to be best suited, the ITS1 region and the mini-exon. There is, however, no consensus as to which of these two is best. The aim of this study was to compare both targets with our current method, a PCR on the 18S ribosomal RNA gene. The ITS1 PCR proved to be slightly more sensitive and more practical than the mini-exon. Nevertheless, the mini-exon is more polymorphic and is needed in subtyping Leishmania species belonging to the L. Viannia subgenus. The ITS1 method was adapted to use as a real-time PCR for diagnostic purposes. In addition, designing and testing a new primer set improved sensitivity of the PCR on the mini-exon.
利什曼病是一种由单细胞利什曼原虫寄生虫引起的疾病。全世界有数百万人受到这种媒介传播疾病的影响。该疾病表现出不同的临床表现，这是由特定的利什曼原虫物种引起的。治疗策略取决于涉及的利什曼原虫物种。使用 PCR 以敏感的方式检测利什曼原虫并随后对感染物种进行分型非常重要。已经提出了各种靶标，但似乎有两个靶标最合适，即 ITS1 区和 mini-exon。然而，对于这两个靶标哪个更好，尚无共识。本研究的目的是将这两个靶标与我们当前的方法，即针对 18S 核糖体 RNA 基因的 PCR 进行比较。ITS1 PCR 被证明比 mini-exon 略敏感且更实用。然而，mini-exon 具有更高的多态性，并且在对属于 L. Viannia 亚属的利什曼原虫物种进行亚型分型时是必需的。ITS1 方法被改编为用于诊断目的的实时 PCR。此外，设计和测试新的引物组提高了 mini-exon PCR 的灵敏度。
