Interferon-gamma and Interleukin 17 patterns in patients infected with L. major: Early dermal lesions

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is consider from the global neglected health diseases, which are an endemic in many countries. It caused by obligatory intracellular protozoa of genus Leishmania and invades phagocytic cells. The current study is aimed to measure interferon-gamma and interleukin 17 levels in serum of patients infected with L. major. It was conducted in Dermatology Department/ Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital, Thi-Qar province, south of Iraq for the period from the beginning of January to the end of December 2020. This study included 110 patients have infected with cutaneous leishmaniasis, which they were clinically diagnosed. Furthermore, the samples were taken from early dermal lesions (symptoms appeared on less than 4 weeks) in order to done molecular examination with Nested-PCR technique, and then peripheral blood collected for a measure of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and interleukin 17 (IL-17) concentration levels in patients’ sera by ELISA assay. The findings of DNA amplification of kinetoplast minicircle DNA gene (kDNA) showed L. major in 31 (32.6%) Nested-PCR products, which generated at 560 bp. The results showed an insignificant decreasing in IFN-γ level, while IL-17 level was increased in early cutaneous lesions among the patients infected with L. major. Generally, the study confirmed that Leishmania parasites inhibit and/or modulate signaling pathways of some cytokines in the host cell, which effect on other immune cells in order its own survival