Department of Veterinary Hygiene, Faculty of Agriculture, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2010 Mar;7(3):814-26. doi: 10.3390/ijerph7030814. Epub 2010 Mar 5.
Leishmaniasis is a protozoan disease caused by the genus Leishmania transmitted by female phlebotomine sand flies. Surveillance of the prevalence of Leishmania and responsive vector species in endemic and surrounding areas is important for predicting the risk and expansion of the disease. Molecular biological methods are now widely applied to epidemiological studies of infectious diseases including leishmaniasis. These techniques are used to detect natural infections of sand fly vectors with Leishmania protozoa and are becoming powerful tools due to their sensitivity and specificity. Recently, genetic analyses have been performed on sand fly species and genotyping using PCR-RFLP has been applied to the sand fly taxonomy. In addition, a molecular mass screening method has been established that enables both sand fly species and natural leishmanial infections to be identified simultaneously in hundreds of sand flies with limited effort. This paper reviews recent advances in the study of sand flies, vectors of leishmaniasis, using molecular biological approaches.
利什曼病是一种由白蛉科雌性沙蝇传播的原生动物病，由利什曼属引起。监测利什曼原虫和周围地区反应性媒介物种的流行情况对于预测疾病的风险和传播至关重要。分子生物学方法现在广泛应用于包括利什曼病在内的传染病的流行病学研究。这些技术用于检测沙蝇媒介中利什曼原虫的自然感染，并且由于其敏感性和特异性而成为强大的工具。最近，对沙蝇物种进行了遗传分析，并应用 PCR-RFLP 对沙蝇分类进行了基因分型。此外，还建立了一种分子质量筛选方法，该方法能够在数百只沙蝇中同时识别沙蝇物种和自然利什曼原虫感染，工作量有限。本文综述了利用分子生物学方法研究利什曼病传播媒介沙蝇的最新进展。
