Monoclonal antibody identification of Leishmania tropica from Sudanese mucosal leishmaniasis.

Monoclonal antibodies have been raised against a stock of Leishmania parasites which were isolated from a patient with mucocutaneous leishmaniasis in the Sudan. This stock did not react with monoclonal antibodies to L. donovani, and monoclonal antibodies raised to this stock were not reactive with stocks of L. donovani. They did react with stocks of L. tropica. The antibodies recognized antigens of high and of low molecular weights which were detectable in immunofluorescence on cultured promastigotes and on amastigotes cultured in macrophages. The taxonomy of the species responsible for the different clinical manifestations of infection with Leishmania is not yet clear; there has been for example discussion as to whether the different forms of the disease in the Sudan are caused by one or more species of parasite. Studies with highly specific monoclonal antibodies can help to clarify this picture.