Identification of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Egypt by hybridization of PCR amplified mini-exon repeats.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) had been used to amplify the mini-exon gene repeat from 30 clinically and parasitologically positively cases of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis. It revealed that they possess 440-460 bp mini-exon gene that belongs to Old world Leishmania. Hybridization of the PCR-amplified mini-exon repeats was performed. A single pair of PCR primers within a conserved region of the mini-exon repeat was used to amplify the repeats of the 30 cases. Oligonucleotide hybridization probes for the detection and identification of the PCR-amplified repeats were constructed from alignment of mini-exon intron and intergenic sequences. The probes of Leishmania major and Leishmania tropic, which are supposed to be present in the research area, were used to identify the causative species. They revealed that the all collected samples are belonging to L. major.