Emergence of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis due to Leishmania tropica and L. major in The Palestinian Authority and Israel

• Applicant: Dr. Gabriele Schönian
• Co-Applicants: Professor Dr. Ziad A. Abdeen; Professor Dr. Amer Al-Jawabreh, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Gad Baneth; Professor Dr. Charles L. Jaffe, Ph.D.; Dr. Abedelmajeed Nasereddin, Ph.D.; Dr. Amer Marei Sawalha; Professor Dr. Lionel F. Schnur; Kifaya Azmi Suliman; Professor Dr. Alon Warburg
• Subject Area: Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
• Term: from 2007 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 22548916

As in the first two years of the project, the core component will be a service unit that also participates in the research undertaken by the other projects. It will co-coordinate the collection of leishmanial strains and all their background data, collating these into a strain bank and database accessible to the project consortium. It will characterize and identify the strains isolated during the coming three-year period to the species and strain levels, using the established PCR and multilocus microsatellite typing assays, and also excreted factor serotyping, which is indicative of antigenic variation among strains. This will include investigation of the dissemination patterns of antigenically different strains of L. tropica in Syrian hamsters. It will undertake the mass production of parasites and extraction of their DNA for distribution to other participants in this project for genetic analysis. The core project will support epidemiological surveys by developing a new high-throughput method for use on pools of sand flies to identify their species and that of any leishmanial parasites infecting them. An in-vitro pilot study will be undertaken to check the efficacy against promastigotes of L. tropica and L. major of extracts from local plants used in a traditional treatment of CL. Other local plants will be similarly checked for anti-leishmanial activity. This project will also support the establishment of a Palestinian network on leishmaniases that will include the team at Al Quds University, The Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) and regional health workers.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Israel, Palestine