Natural and experimental evidence of viscerotropic infection caused by Leishmania tropica from North Sinai, Egypt

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected clinical form that is quite prevalent in Eastern North parts of the country in Sinai Peninsula. Leishmania tropica was identified by previous reports as the causative agent responsible for viscerotropic infections in-patients and experimental animals. Here, we reported the viscerotropic infections from naturally infected rodent Gerbillus pyramidum floweri collected from North-Sinai. Footpad and tail lesions, spleenomegaly, and malformed dark-colored spleen were the characteristic CL symptoms. The spleen of the rodent found positive to amastigote impression smear. ITS-1 DNA was sequenced and revealed 100% identity of the strain in the current study to the other L. tropica sequences identified from the patients with the suspected CL and inhabited the same study area. The current findings confirmed the susceptibility of gerbil to L. tropica, and raise the concerns for the role of rodents as accidental host suffering the infections. The susceptibility of wild and experimental rodents to the same L. tropica strain was also investigated; BALB/c and G. pyramidum were more susceptible to L. tropica (24.33 ± 4.37 and 25 ± 4.58 days post-infection, respectively). Similar viscerotropic pathologies were reported in experimental infection of only golden hamster (≈ 120 days post-infection), and G. p. floweri (≈ 160 days post-infection).