Dear Colleagues,

The diagnosis of leishmaniasis is currently based on clinical manifestations, epidemiology, and parasitological examination. The gold standard methods for the diagnosis of leishmaniasis depend primarily on the microscopic detection of amastigote stages on stained blood smears from lesions or aspirates, and the recovery of Leishmania parasites from biopsies, lesions, and aspirates by culture. Although other methods have been employed for decades, including the use of molecular techniques for diagnosis purposes, there remains a need to develop these techniques and increase their specificity and sensitivity, especially in asymptomatic cases. There are many molecular approaches described in articles published by various research groups showing both high sensitivity and high specificity, but the lack of standardization and validation of these techniques is considered a major obstacle to their routine use in the clinical diagnosis of leishmaniasis.

We seek to shed light on this issue and encourage researchers to conduct research on the standardization and validation of the DNA extraction and PCR techniques as well as the development of many other novel molecular assays that may have potential for the detection and quantification of Leishmania species.

Therefore, a Special Issue on the molecular diagnosis of leishmaniasis is needed to discuss the latest efforts by researchers in the development and standardization of molecular assays that may be employed in the clinical diagnosis of Leishmania parasites and to discuss the limitations and challenges of these techniques. The aims of this Special Issue include presenting the available knowledge on the molecular diagnosis of Leishmania parasites; reporting any novel molecular assays for the detection and quantification of Leishmania species from clinical samples; describing new noninvasive, affordable, rapid, and accessible molecular tests for the clinical diagnosis of leishmaniasis; and reviewing the limitations and challenges of the use of molecular biology techniques for the diagnosis of leishmaniasis.

Original research, review, short communication, and opinion articles are welcomed, including, but not limited to, those on the following topics:

• The evaluation of the current PCR methods for detecting and differentiating Leishmania species;
• New affordable molecular biology assays with high sensitivity and specificity;
• The molecular techniques currently in use in different countries;
• Noninvasive, rapid Leishmania tests;
• The standardization of sample collection, DNA extraction, and PCR methods for diagnostic purposes;
• Methods for the quantification and estimation of parasite load;
• PCR–high resolution melting (HRM) validation and possible implementation in endemic areas;
• The validation of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP);
• Molecular targets for Leishmania detection and differentiation;
• Quality control policies for the molecular diagnosis of leishmaniasis and other infectious diseases.

Dr. Omar Hamarsheh
Guest Editor

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• molecular diagnosis
• Leishmania
• Leishmaniasis
• PCR
• epidemiology