Considering the different clinical symptoms of leishmaniasis in Iran, and the wide distribution of its agent and the little information in this regard, this study was performed to characterize the responsible variants using monoclonal antibodies.
A total of 156 isolates of Leishmania from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis and one isolate from rat were characterized using the standard monoclonal antibodies using ELISA and IF A tests.
Geographic distribution of 156 isolated Leishmania was 30 in Shiraz, 28 in Kerman, and 98 in Tehran. In this study, 63, 72, and 3 Leishmania isolates reacted with anti-L. tropica, anti-L. major and anti-infantum respectively. Of the three isolates that reacted with anti-L.infantum; two were isolated from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis and one was the organism isolated from rat in a region with a high prevalence of visceral leislunaniasis. In this respect, mixed reactions with the monoclonal antibodies was also observed as six isolates reacted with anti-L.tropica and anti-L.major, five reacted with anti-L. tropica and L. infantum and one with anti-L. major and anti-L.infantum. The monoclonal antibiodies used did not react with none of the isolates.