First Report of an Asymptomatic Infection Using a Nasal Swab in Amazon, Brazil.

UNLABELLED

The state of Pará has recorded seven species that cause tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL). species induce distinct immunological responses from the host and exhibit resistance to Glucantime, the first-line drug treatment for TL in Brazil.

OBJECTIVE

Identify the etiology of TL in an Amazonian city in the state of Pará.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Eleven patients with TL were recruited and nasal swabs, lesion swabs, and skin fragments samples were collected. In the control group (n = 6), only the nasal swabs were collected. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification of the gene region was performed using the extracted DNA from the samples, from which nine patients with TL and five in the control group were positive. Products were sequenced, mounted in CAP3 software, aligned using MAFFT v.7.221, edited in Geneious software v.8.1.7, and compared and aligned with sequences available in GenBank using the BLAST tool.

RESULTS

For patients with TL, six molecular diagnosis at the species level ( () (n = 5/9), () (n = 1/9)) and three at the genus level ( sp. (n = 3/9)) were obtained. In the control group, four individuals were infected with sp. (n = 4/5) and (n = 1/5).

CONCLUSION

This is the first report of infection in the mucosal secretion of a healthy person in Brazil. Moreover, genetic variants were identified in the haplotypes of in the gene sequence