Genetic variation of cutaneous leishmaniasis causative species in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, three Leishmania species are linked to Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL): Leishmania aethiopica, L. tropica, and L. donovani. Among these, L. aethiopica is the most commonly reported cause. The clinical presentations of CL are broadly classified into localized (LCL), mucocutaneous (MCL), and diffuse cutaneous CL (DCL) forms. There is limited data on the genetics of these pathogens, despite the different clinical forms and estimated 50 thousand new cases of CL per year. In this research, we sequenced the ITS1 region from 72 clinical specimens. In the in-silico PCR-RFLP, 67 were identified as L. aethiopica (93.1%), and 5 were identified as L. tropica (6.9%). In the ITS1 sequence analysis, among the isolates with L. aethiopica PCR-RFLP pattern, 13.4% (n = 9) were found to be putative hybrids between L. donovani and L. aethiopica. We recommend a powered study to explore the public health implication of the different species, and interspecies hybrids.