Seroprevalence of IgG and IgM anti—Toxoplasma antibodies in HIV/AIDS patients, northern Iran

AbstractObjectiveTo determine the seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) IgG and IgM antibodies in HIV/AIDS patients and uninfected subjects.MethodsThis cross sectional survey was carried out on 78 healthy and 62 HIV+/AIDS individuals in northern Iran between September 2007 and October 2008. Five mL of blood samples were collected from each person in case and control groups. Determination of CD4+ counts was performed by flow cytometry. The serum separated from blood samples was evaluated by conventional ELISA technique to determine the presence of antibodies to T. gondii.ResultsForty eight out of 62 (77.4%) HIV/AIDS serum samples were found positive for anti-T. gondii IgG antibody, compared with 59 among 78 (75.6%) HIV negative samples from the same area (P > 0.05). Six out of 62 (9.7%) HIV+/AIDS patients showed anti-T. gondii IgM antibody in their serum samples, compared with 7 among 78 (9%) HIV negative samples (P > 0.05). The mean of CD4+ counts in HIV+/AIDS was (430.8±182.3) cells/μL and in control group was (871.0±243.3)% cells/μL (P<0.01). CD4+ estimation in 5 (11.1%) of HIV+/AIDS patients was <200 cells/μL (P < 0.0001).ConclusionsSeroprevalence of latent toxoplasmosis in HIV patients is high, therefore the prevention of toxoplasmic encephalitis, administration of primary prophylaxis with co-trimoxazole to all HIV+/AIDS patients are necessary

A Systematic Review of In vitro and In vivo Activities of Anti-Toxoplasma Drugs and Compounds (2006–2016)

The currently available anti-Toxoplasma agents have serious limitations. This systematic review was performed to evaluate drugs and new compounds used for the treatment of toxoplasmosis. Data was systematically collected from published papers on the efficacy of drugs/compounds used against Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) globally during 2006–2016. The searched databases were PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, ISI Web of Science, EBSCO, and Scopus. One hundred and eighteen papers were eligible for inclusion in this systematic review, which were both in vitro and in vivo studies. Within this review, 80 clinically available drugs and a large number of new compounds with more than 39 mechanisms of action were evaluated. Interestingly, many of the drugs/compounds evaluated against T. gondii act on the apicoplast. Therefore, the apicoplast represents as a potential drug target for new chemotherapy. Based on the current findings, 49 drugs/compounds demonstrated in vitro half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) values of below 1 μM, but most of them were not evaluated further for in vivo effectiveness. However, the derivatives of the ciprofloxacin, endochin-like quinolones and 1-[4-(4-nitrophenoxy) phenyl] propane-1-one (NPPP) were significantly active against T. gondii tachyzoites both in vitro and in vivo. Thus, these compounds are promising candidates for future studies. Also, compound 32 (T. gondii calcium-dependent protein kinase 1 inhibitor), endochin-like quinolones, miltefosine, rolipram abolish, and guanabenz can be repurposed into an effective anti-parasitic with a unique ability to reduce brain tissue cysts (88.7, 88, 78, 74, and 69%, respectively). Additionally, no promising drugs are available for congenital toxoplasmosis. In conclusion, as current chemotherapy against toxoplasmosis is still not satisfactory, development of well-tolerated and safe specific immunoprophylaxis in relaxing the need of dependence on chemotherapeutics is a highly valuable goal for global disease control. However, with the increasing number of high-risk individuals, and absence of a proper vaccine, continued efforts are necessary for the development of novel treatment options against T. gondii. Some of the novel compounds reviewed here may represent good starting points for the discovery of effective new drugs. In further, bioinformatic and in silico studies are needed in order to identify new potential toxoplasmicidal drugs

Rolling up the pieces of a puzzle: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in Iran

Toxoplasmosis is a neglected parasitic disease with global distribution in warm-blooded vertebrates and high prevalence among different human societies. We contrived a systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in Iran. Following the general methodology recommended for systematic reviews and meta-analysis, four English and three Persian electronic databases were explored up to April 2016. Out of 105,139 examined samples of different hosts, the weighted overall prevalence was 37% (95% CI = 31–43). Due to the significant heterogeneity (I2 = 81.9%) the random-effects model was used. The pool estimated prevalence of toxoplasmosis in human intermediate hosts, animal intermediate hosts, and definitive hosts was 43% (95% CI = 38–47), 26 (95% CI = 17–35) and, 34% (95% CI = 22–46), respectively. Our results represent that regular inspection in food industries, improved screening programs using standard diagnostic assay as well as distinguishing toxoplasmosis condition in other zoonotic hosts are extremely recommended for better disease management in Iran.Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii, Prevalence, Iran, Systematic review, Meta-analysi

E2F-GAN: Eyes-to-Face Inpainting via Edge-Aware Coarse-to-Fine GANs

Face inpainting is a challenging task aiming to ll the damaged or masked regions in face images with plausibly synthesized contents. Based on the given information, the reconstructed regions should look realistic and more importantly preserve the demographic and biometric properties of the individual. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the face based on the periocular region (eyes-to-face). To do this, we proposed a novel GAN-based deep learning model called Eyes-to-Face GAN (E2F-GAN) which includes two main modules: a coarse module and a re nement module. The coarse module along with an edge predictor module attempts to extract all required features from a periocular region and to generate a coarse output which will be re ned by a re nement module. Additionally, a dataset of eyes-to-face synthesis has been generated based on the public face dataset called CelebA-HQ for training and testing. Thus, we perform both qualitative and quantitative evaluations on the generated dataset. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms previous learning-based face inpainting methods and generates realistic and semantically plausible images. We also provide the implementation of the proposed approach to support reproducible research via (https://github.com/amiretefaghi/E2F-GAN). INDEXThis work was supported by the Project Privacy Matters (PRIMA) under Grant H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019-860315. The work of Julian Fierrez was supported by the Project Biometrics and Behavior for Unbiased and Trusted AI with Applications (BBforTAI) under Grant PID2021-127641OB-I00 MICINN/FEDER

Drug Resistance in Toxoplasma gondii

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a global protozoan parasite infecting up to one-third of the world population. Pyrimethamine (PYR) and sulfadiazine (SDZ) are the most widely used drugs for treatment of toxoplasmosis; however, several failure cases have been recorded as well; suggesting the existence of drug resistant strains. This review aims to give a systematic and comprehensive understanding of drug resistance in T. gondii including mechanisms of resistance and sites of drug action in parasite. Analogous amino acid substitutions in the Toxoplasma enzyme were identified to confer PYR resistance. Moreover, resistance to clindamycin, spiramycin, and azithromycin is encoded in the rRNA genes of T. gondii. However, T. gondii SDZ resistance mechanism has not been proved yet. Recently there has been a slight increase in SDZ resistance. That is why the majority of studies were carried out using SDZ. Six strains resistant to SDZ were found in clinical cases between 2013 and 2017 which among Brazilian T. gondii isolates, TgCTBr11, Ck3, and Pg1 were identified in human toxoplasmosis, as well as in livestock intended for human consumption. In conclusion, recent experimental studies in clinical cases have clearly shown that drug resistance in Toxoplasma is ongoing. Thus, establishing a more effective therapeutic scheme in the treatment of toxoplasmosis is critically needed. The emergence of T. gondii strains resistant to current drugs, reviewed here, represents a concern not only for treatment failure but also for increased clinical severity in immunocompromised patients. To improve the therapeutic outcome in patients, a greater understanding of the exact mechanisms of drug resistance in T. gondii should be developed. Thus, monitoring the presence of resistant parasites, in food products, would seem a prudent public health program

IL-17 and IL-22 elicited by a DNA vaccine encoding ROP13 associated with protection against Toxoplasma gondii in BALB/c mice.

Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular parasitic protozoan, is capable of infecting man and all warm-blooded animals. Cell-mediated immunity is vital in mounting protective responses against T. gondii infection. Recent studies have shown that T-helper (Th) 17 responses may play a key role in parasite control. In this current study, we constructed a DNA vaccine encoding T. gondii ROP13 in a pcDNA vector. Groups of BALB/c mice were immunized intramuscularly with pcROP13 or controls and challenged with the RH strain of T. gondii. The results showed that immunization with pcROP13 could elicit an antibody response against T. gondii. The expression of the canonical Th17 cytokines, interleukin (IL)-17 and IL-22, were significantly increased after immunization with pcROP13 compared with control groups ( p < 0.05). Furthermore, vaccination resulted in a significant decrease in parasite load ( p < 0.05). The induction of Th17 related cytokines, using a ROP13 DNA vaccine, against T. gondii should be considered as a potential vaccine approach for the control of toxoplasmosis

Freshwater snails as the intermediate host of trematodes in Iran: a systematic review

Freshwater snails, as the first intermediate hosts of trematodes, can cause health hazards in animals and humans. Recently, the World Health Organization has included Iran in a list of 6 countries known to have serious problems with fascioliasis. In addition, cercarial dermatitis is a job-related disease that is seen often in paddy workers, agricultural labourers, and fishermen in Iran, particularly in Mazandaran Province. Many studies have been conducted in Iran to survey larval trematodes in freshwater snails. However, to the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive data exist regarding infections in gastropods. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to estimate the types and prevalence of cercarial infections in snails in Iran. Electronic English-language and Persian-language databases were searched to identify 24 published articles reporting the prevalence of trematode infections in snails (9 species from 6 families) in various provinces of Iran. In total, 4.4% of gastropods were infected with the larval stages of trematodes. According to the studies reviewed in this meta-analysis‚ the highest infection prevalence was found in Radix auricularia (9.9%). Twelve larval species of trematodes were identified, and the highest prevalence of cercariae was found for Echinostomatidae cercariae (4.3%). Among the provinces explored, West Azerbaijan had the highest prevalence of infected snails (16.9%). The presence of trematodes in snails could pose a serious health problem in Iran. Thus, further studies are necessary to characterize these infections in other provinces

Determinants of avian malaria prevalence in mountainous Transcaucasia

Deforestation, urban development, and global climate change can lead to dramatic changes of ecological communities and increase prevalence of infectious diseases at higher latitudes and altitudes. Identification of factors responsible for the prevalence of parasites is of crucial importance to understand the dynamics of parasite distribution in a changing environment. Mountain areas are especially suitable for studies of factors governing parasite distribution and prevalence due to heterogeneity of landscapes, climatic regimes, and other biotic and abiotic conditions.We examined 903 avian blood smears collected in mountains of Transcaucasia for prevalence of Haemoproteus and Plasmodium.We found that the haemoparasites prevalence differed among bird species and localities, highlighting the environmental components affecting disease distribution. The prevalence of both Haemoproteus and Plasmodium was significantly higher in males, adults, and migratory species than in females, juveniles, and resident species. Geographic Information System (GIS) and linear regression analyses revealed that elevation and monthly average precipitation were strongly correlated with proportion of infected birds with Plasmodium, indicating that the prevalence increased with increase of monthly average temperature and elevation. Birds from forested and high grassed areas were also more infected with avian haemosporidia. Our study provides baseline data for modelling of parasites distribution under global climate change scenarios, which is of great importance for monitoring and management of communities and environment for conservation and human health

Phylogeography, Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Echinococcus granulosus Sensu Stricto Inferred by Mitochondrial DNA Markers between Southeast of Iran and Pakistan

Background: Current study was designed to provide a better insight into the circulating genotypes, genetic diversity, and population structure of Echinococcus spp. between southeast of Iran and Pakistan. Methods: From Jun 2020 to Dec 2020, 46 hydatid cysts were taken from human (n: 6), camel (n: 10), goat (n: 10), cattle (n: 10) and sheep (n: 10) in various cities of Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran, located at the neighborhood of Pakistan. DNA samples were extracted, amplified, and subjected to sequence analysis of cox1 and nad1 genes. Results: The phylogeny inferred by the Maximum Likelihood algorithm indicated that G1 genotype (n: 19), G3 genotype (n: 14) and G6 genotype (n: 13) assigned into their specific clades. The diversity indices showed a moderate (nad1: Hd: 0.485) to high hap- lotype diversity (cox1: Hd: 0.867) of E. granulosus s.s. (G1/G3) and low nucleotide diver- sity. The negative value of Tajima’s D and Fu’s Fs test displayed deviation from neutrali- ty indicating a recent population expansion. A parsimonious network of the haplotypes of cox1 displayed star-like features in the overall population containing IR9/PAK1/G1, IR2/PAK2/G3 and IR18/G6 as the most common haplotypes. A pairwise fixation index (Fst) indicated that E. granulosus s.s. populations are genetically moderate differen- tiated between southeast of Iran and Pakistan. The extension of haplotypes PAK18/G1 (sheep) and PAK26/G1 (cattle) toward Iranian haplogroup revealed that there is dawn of Echinococcus flow due to a transfer of alleles between mentioned populations through transport of livestock or their domestication. Conclusion: The current findings strengthen our knowledge concerning the evolution- ary paradigms of E. granulosus in southeastern borders of Iran and is effective in control- ling of hydatidosis

Molecular Identification of Neospora caninum Infection in Aborted Fetuses of Sheep, Cattle, and Goats in Mazandaran Province, Northern Iran

Background: We aimed to identify Neospora caninum DNA in the brain samples of aborted fetuses of cattle, goats, and sheep in Mazandaran, northern Iran, using PCR. Methods: In total, 133 aborted fetuses (51 sheep, 78 cattle, and 4 goats) were randomly collected from different stages of gestation in various regions of Mazandaran, Iran, from Mar 2016 to May 2017. The DNA was extracted from all the brain samples using phenol chloroform isoamyl alcohol instructions. The Nc-5 gene was used for the detection of N. caninum DNA by nested-PCR assay. Results: The detection of N. caninum DNA was confirmed by the observation of a 227 bp band in 24 samples of 133 aborted fetuses (18.1%). The highest prevalence rate of N. caninum was detected in the cattle (20.5%) followed by the sheep (15.6%); however, no positive cases were reported in the goats. The highest and lowest prevalence rates of the infection were reported as 23.8% and 8.6% in Qaemshahr, and Behshahr, respectively. The prevalence rate of infection (32%) in the early gestational period was higher than those in the middle (15%) and late (3.8%) gestational periods. Conclusion: The obtained data of the present study indicated that N. caninum infection may partly be responsible for abortion and economic loss in livestock farming in Mazandaran Province