Leishmania Rna Virus 2 (Lrv2) Exacerbates Dermal Lesions Caused by Leishmania Major and Comparatively Unresponsive to Meglumine Antimoniate Treatment Publisher Pubmed



Saberi R^{1, 2} ; Fakhar M^{1, 2} ; Hajjaran H³ ; Abbaszadeh Afshar MJ³ ; Mohebali M^{3, 4} ; Hezarjaribi HZ² ; Moghadam Y² ; Sharbatkhori M⁵
Source: Experimental Parasitology Published:2022

Abstract

Purpose: The present study investigated the possible role of Leishmania RNA virus 2 (LRV2) in the severity of dermal lesions and treatment failure due to Leishmania major. Methods: The drug susceptibility of 14 clinical isolates of L.major, including resistant (n = 7) and sensitive (n = 7) isolates, was checked in the J774A.1 macrophage cell line. The presence of LRV2 among isolates was investigated by the RdRp gene and semi-nested PCR. Moreover, 1 × 106 sensitive L. major LRV2+ and LRV2- promastigotes were inoculated subcutaneously into the base tails of the 40 BALB/c mice divided into 4 groups (n = 10 in each group), including clinical LRV2+, clinical LRV2-, positive control LRV2+ and negative control LRV2-. The groups were infected with a unique isolate. The lesion size and parasite burden were evaluated. Results: Sensitive and resistant isolates were determined by the drug susceptibility method. A higher presence of LRV2 was observed among MA-resistant isolates (6/7) compared with susceptible isolates (4/7), which was not statistically significant (P = 0.237). On the other hand, a comparison of the lesion sizes between the LRV2+ and LRV2- BALB/c mice groups revealed that the mean size of the lesion in the LRV2+ groups was significantly higher than the LRV2- (P = 0.034). In the same direction, there was an increased parasite burden in mice inoculated with LRV2+ groups compared with the LRV2- BALB/c mice groups (P = 0.002). Conclusions: Our findings showed that the presence of LRV2 could be one of the factors contributing to exacerbating CL. Although we found a higher presence of LRV2 in the resistant isolates, it seems that further investigations are recommended to determine the detailed association between lesions' aggravation and being comparatively unresponsive to treatment. © 2022