in vitro study on four types of commercial lectins on leishmania infantum, l. major and l. tropica with stage-specific binding and leishmania species identification

Background: we aimed to verify the susceptibility of leishmania infantum, l. major and l. tropica, to commercial lectins in order to identify the three leishmania species.methods: the degree of agglutination was determined both macroscopically and microscopically and was scored negative (-) to positive (from 1+- 4+) based on their percentage of agglutination.results: jacalin and uea-1 were capable of agglutination of l. infantum isolates in both logarithmic and stationary phases at a concentration of 1000 µg/ml (100%). l. tropica isolates showed agglutination with the lectin uea-1 in both logarithmic and stationary phases (62.5% and 87.5%). l. major and l. tropica showed 75% agglutination with lectin jacalin in both logarithmic and stationary phases. l. tropica isolates showed 25% agglutination with the lectin wga in the logarithmic phase. l. infantum, l. major and l. tropica isolates showed 25, 12.5 and 37.5% agglutination in the stationary phase, however, did not show agglutination in logarithmic phases. l. major isolates showed 12.5% agglutination with the lectin pha in the stationary phase, however, were incapable of agglutination with the l. tropica and l. infantum in both logarithmic and stationary phases.conclusion: despite the fact, that jca and i-uea lectins were not able to completely separate l. infantum, l. major and l. tropica. wga lectin and pha lectin can help in separating the species of leishmania parasites.