Stratification of expression profiles of immune-related genes in the lesion of cutaneous leishmaniasis patients with L. major and L. tropica infection

There is still no reliable human vaccination against cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), a serious public health issue in many parts of underdeveloped nations like Morocco and Iran. There are few studies comparing the expression of immune-related genes in the skin lesions of CL patients infected with L. major and L. tropica. In this study, we used dcRT-MLPA to analyze the expression profiles of 144 immune response-related genes in CL patients from Morocco and Iran who had been exposed to L. major and L. tropica, respectively. Using a dual-color reverse-transcription multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (dcRT-MLPA) assay, the gene expression profile of innate, adaptive and inflammatory immune response was assessed in CL patients from Morocco and Iran who had been exposed to Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica, respectively. Normal skin samples were taken from four volunteers living in non-endemic areas and with no history of cutaneous leishmaniasis.