Abstract
Diagnosis of leptospirosis in Colombia is based on clinical history and serological testing. However, disease symptoms are nonspecific and there is no uniform criteria regarding the qualifications considered positive. Therefore, it is important to identify and characterize genes associated with pathogenicity in native strains for the development of new diagnostic tests and vaccine production. The aim of this study was to identify the ompL1 and lipL32 genes in Leptospira strains isolated from urine samples of cattle. Sixteen strains were obtained from urine samples and, DNA was isolated to perform two Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests which identified lipL32 and ompL1 genes. As positive control, a reference strain of L. interrogans was used. L. biflexa and Escherichia coli strains were used as a negative control. In 100% of the samples were identified amplicons of 960 bp and 423 bp corresponding to ompL1 and lipL32 genes respectively. Thus, the pathogenic property and conservation of genes in the isolated strains were confirmed. This study is presented as a contribution to the diagnosis of leptospirosis to use these genes as molecular markers of infection. The results of this study might provide clues for future clinical, epidemiological and molecular research leading to implement new diagnostic strategies and to expand knowledge of the pathophysiology of a disease of public health impact on human and animal.
Highlights
Leptospirosis is a worldwide distributed disease, affecting most of mammals in which it causes several signs including subclinical symptoms, abortions, stillbirths and mummification
The results obtained by using Nucleotide resource of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) indicate that the lipL32 gene sequence has been reported only in pathogenic strains of Leptospira sp
Leptospira species in which the gene has been reported are: L. interrogans, L. borgpetersenii, L. santarosai, L. kirschneri, L. noguchi and L. wali. ompL1 gene has been reported in the following pathogenic strains: L
Summary
Leptospirosis is a worldwide distributed disease, affecting most of mammals (cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, dogs, horses, and rodents) in which it causes several signs including subclinical symptoms, abortions, stillbirths and mummification. Chronic leptospirosis is the most common stage; pregnant cows present abortions, weak calves and placental retention This stage is associated with serovar Hardjo [12] [15] [16]. Several studies have investigated about the pathogenetic mechanisms of leptospirosis, host-parasite interactions and identification of virulence genes in different serovars of pathogenic and non-pathogenic leptospires [19] [20]. In this way, antigenic proteins expressed during infection have been identified. LipL32 and OmpL1 proteins are candidates for designing new diagnostic techniques and producing immunogens
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