Structural genomic analysis of two clinical isolates from a fatal case of visceral leishmaniasis

Abstract

Human Visceral Leishmaniasis (HVL) is a neglected disease caused by the two-host lifecycle protozoa parasite, Leishmania infantum. The parasite transmission occurs through sandfly bites and HVL can be lethal if untreated or treatments fail. HVL is endemic to tropical countries, showing a great focus on Northeastern Brazil, although recently it has spread across several regions of the country. The reports of atypical and/or fatal cases have been increasing annually. Here, our aim is to perform a structural genomic analysis and genomic annotation of two clinical isolates obtained from an atypical HVL case to fulfill the genomic analysis that has been done by our group in Brazil. For this purpose, we will work in collaboration with the experts of Microbial Population Genomics Group led by Dr. Daniel Jeffares from University of York, York, UK. The clinical isolates were obtained from a fatal case of HVL, who was refractory to three courses of treatment and at the third admission the patient developed disseminated skin lesions. The parasite strains were isolated from bone marrow aspirate and skin lesions. Previous genomic analysis demonstrated that both strains don't belong to any Leishmania species and are more similar to a non-infective Trypanosomatidae parasite from genus Crithidia. In this context, bioinformatic analysis of these genomes will guide us to predict the number of genes, number of chromosomes and ploidy of this potentially novel organism associated to an atypical Human Leishmaniasis-like (AHL). (AU)