Molecular signatures of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in the lesions of patients infected with Leishmania tropica

In this study employed a systems analysis approach to study molecular signatures of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) caused by Leishmania tropica (L. tropica) in the skin lesions of ulcerativeCL (UCL) and non-ulcerative CL( NUCL) patients. Results from RNA-seq analysis determined shared and unique functional transcriptional pathways in the lesions of the UCL and Nucl patients. Several transcriptional pathways involved in inflammatory response were positively enriched in the CL lesions. These results enhance our understanding of human skin response to CL caused by L. tropica. Overall design: The experiments were divided into three groups include; control, UCL, and NUCL patients groups. A total of seven UCL and nine NUCL patients were enrolled in the study. Healthy skin samples were taken from six volunteers. From each CL patient and healthy individual, two skin biopsies were collected. Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data was performed for these groups.