Browsing by Author "Matlashewski, Greg"

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    An intraspecies Leishmania donovani hybrid from the Indian subcontinent is associated with an atypical phenotype of cutaneous disease
    (Elsevier Inc., 2022-01-22T00:00:00) Lypaczewski, Patrick; Thakur, Lovlesh; Jain, Aklank; Kumari, Sandhya; Paulini, Kayla; Matlashewski, Greg; Jain, Manju
    Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease endemic in over 90 countries. The disease has two main pathologies; cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) that generally self-heals, and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) that is fatal if untreated. The majority of VL cases, concentrated on the Indian subcontinent (ISC) and East Africa, are caused by Leishmania donovani. However, recent foci of CL on the ISC have been attributed as an atypical phenotype of L. donovani including a recent outbreak in Himachal Pradesh, India. Whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis was undertaken to investigate the origins and genetic factors leading to this pathology atypical of L. donovani. Here we demonstrate the isolate from Himachal Pradesh is derived from a genetic hybridization between two independent L. donovani parents from the �Yeti� ISC1 divergent clade of parasites, identified in the Nepalese highlands. This reveals that intraspecies L. donovani hybrids can give rise to a novel strain associated with CL. � 2022 The Author(s)
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    Leishmania donovani persistence and circulation causing cutaneous leishmaniasis in unusual-foci of Nepal
    (Nature Research, 2023-07-29T00:00:00) Rai, Tinmaya; Shrestha, Srijan; Prajapati, Sabita; Bastola, Anup; Parajuli, Niraj; Ghimire, Pragya Gautam; Bhandari, Parmananda; Pandey, Kishor; Jain, Manju; Matlashewski, Greg; Bras-Goncalves, Rachel; Manandhar, Krishna Das
    Cutaneous leishmaniasis cases have increased dramatically in recent years in Nepal. The study offers molecular identification of the Leishmania species using 40 patient�s aspiration biopsy samples, targeting markers kinetoplast minicircle DNA (kDNA) and internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS1). Among molecularly diagnosed 22 cutaneous leishmaniasis cases, L. donovani complex was identified in 13 instances and L. major in 9 cases. The ITS1 PCR was positive in 12 of the positive nested- kDNA PCR cases (12/22), confirming L. donovani complex in seven of the cases and L. major in five of the cases. In addition, the study conclude that concurrent occurrence of atypical cutaneous infections caused by L. donovani parasite in 59.1% of cases and typical cutaneous infections caused by L. major parasite in 40.9% of cases. A Phylogentic analaysis showed that the detected L. donovani species present null genetic distances from seven references of L. donovani, but slight differences between ITS1 sequences and not grouped into a significant monophyletic cluster. � 2023, The Author(s).