Nitric oxide induction as a novel immunoepidemiological target in malaria-infected patients from endemic areas of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Objective. Malaria has been prevalent for a long time in Iran and continues to be a health problem despite substantial control programs. In addition to numerous cytokines, nitric oxide (NO) is thought to be a key molecule and a novel target of malaria immunopathology. Material and methods. The objective of this research was to measure reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI) as stable metabolites of NO induction in plasma of malaria-infected patients in Iran. In this study, 235 blood samples from malaria patients and 80 blood samples from healthy controls were randomly collected from different malarial endemic provinces of Iran, located in southeastern (Sistan & Balouchestan, Hormozgan, Kerman) and northwestern (Ardabil) areas. The involvement of NO in malaria patients has been investigated by statistical analysis of RNI values. Griess micro assay (GMA) was used during Plasmodium vivax, P. falciparum and mixed infections, in order to evaluate whether RNI changes are related to the provincial areas, parasite strains, clinical symptoms and age and gender parameters. Results. The results showed a significant increase of RNI level in malaria patients compared with the control groups of Ardabil (pv0.01), Sistan & Balouchestan, Hormozgan and Kerman (pv0.001) provinces. The level of RNI was higher in mixed plasmodial infection than in single infection. Conclusions. The high level of RNI was dependent on the type of infection, the plasmodia strain, the clinical symptoms, the age groups and the endemic provinces. Although, this study did not clarify the pathogenic and/or protective role of NO in malaria, our findings provide a novel immunoepidemiological aspect of basal NO production in patients with malaria in endemic areas in Iran

"Development of a New ElLSA Kit for the Diagnosis of Hydatidosis in Humans"

Cystic hydatid disease (Hydatidosis) is the most serious tape-worm infection prevalent in the cattle and sheep raising area of the world. Hydatidosis in man (as an accidental host) caused by infection with the ova containing larval stage of Echinococcus spp. In the last decade different techniques have been employed for the serological diagnosis of hydatid disease, such as IHA, IFA, ELISA, CCLE (Counter Current Immuno Electrophoresis). The immunologic techniques used in this study were ELISA and CCIE. Since whole hydatid cyst fluid has been used as a source of antigen for serodiagnosis of hydatidosis. The result of examination of 30 patients that were surgically and pathologically proven to have hydatidosis was presented here. By appointing 1:100 serum liter ascut-off titer and using the crude antigen (concentration: 6 mµg/ml), sensitivity and specificity of the Elisa test were reported to be 93.3% and 96.6%,respectively. The Elisa was compared with CCLE in this study; it was found to have sensivity and specificity 90% and 100%,respectively. Finally, the result of our study showed that the ELISA kit designed in our study is easy to perform, not expensive, safe, and simple with good sensivity and specifity

Analysis of Plasmodium vivax Merozoite Surface Protein-1 Gene Sequences

The emergence of Plasmodium vivax in Dashte Moghan in northwestern Iran has become a major concern for Iranian's health officials. Knowledge of genetic make up of the P. vivax populations in this area would give us an insight into the origin of the prevalent infections and the possible routes they are introduced. This paper reports the analysis of a variable region between the two interspecies conserved blocks (ICBs) of 5 and 6 of MSP-1 gene in 18 isolates from Dashte Moghan. The results revealed that all the 18 isolates were similar to an Azari Belem-like type with 21 glutamine (Q) in the repeated residues. Our results may give a clue that the resurgent malaria in Dashteh Moghan might have primarily been introduced from Azerbaijan. However, much more molecular and epidemiological evidence are needed to confirm this hypothesis

Genetic diversity in the circumspordzoite protein gene of Plasmodium falciparum from major endemic regions of Iran

Circumsporozoite protein (CSP) is one of the stage specific antigens, which is used for the development of vaccines and to investigate the genetic diversity in Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite. Polymerase chain reaction was used for typing of CSP genes on 67 positive falciparum malaria patients from Sistan and Baluchistan Province of Iran. Three fragments were detected for CSP gene. Twenty, 38 and 4 samples showed 700, 750 and 800 by fragments, respectively. Sequences of some samples were aligned and compared with P.falcipamm csp gene in gene bank. While the falciparum malaria endemic region of Iran is classified in low to moderate group but, extensive polymorphism was observed in the samples that could be taken into account in designing malaria vaccine

Genetic diversity in the circumspordzoite protein gene of Plasmodium falciparum from major endemic regions of Iran

Circumsporozoite protein (CSP) is one of the stage specific antigens, which is used for the development of vaccines and to investigate the genetic diversity in Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite. Polymerase chain reaction was used for typing of CSP genes on 67 positive falciparum malaria patients from Sistan and Baluchistan Province of Iran. Three fragments were detected for CSP gene. Twenty, 38 and 4 samples showed 700, 750 and 800 by fragments, respectively. Sequences of some samples were aligned and compared with P.falcipamm csp gene in gene bank. While the falciparum malaria endemic region of Iran is classified in low to moderate group but, extensive polymorphism was observed in the samples that could be taken into account in designing malaria vaccine

Prenatal Diagnosis of Congenital Toxoplasmosis: Validity of PCR Using Amniotic Fluid against Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Assay in Mothers

Maternal infection with Toxoplasma gondii acquired during pregnancy may result in congenital infection of developing fetuses. Up to now, decision on informed therapeutic abortion of fetuses suspected of having T. gondii infection in Iran has been made based on serological findings in mothers. This might have led to unnecessary abortion of many uninfected children. We evaluated the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay on amniotic fluids against serological findings in mothers. PCR results in this study indicated that only about one third of Indirect Fluorescent Antibody (IFA) positive mothers had passed the infection to their children. It was a sigh of relief for the majority of mothers who learned that their infants were uninfected. On the other hand it helped the mothers of infected fetuses out of an awkward predicament by making them able to make a solid decision to terminate the pregnancy or carry their children to term

Fungo Lasiodiplodia theobromae: um problema para agricultura baiana.

Anteriormente considerado um fungo oportunista, Lasiodiplodia theobromae (Patouillard) Griffon & Maublanc (sinônimo: Botryodiplodia theobromae Pat.) (SUTTON, 1980), vem se constituindo em um sério problema para os produtores em diversos agroecossistemas (FREIRE et al., 2004).201

Detection of K76T Mutation in pfcrt Gene as an Applicable Ge-netic Marker for Prediction of Chloroquine Resistant falciparum Malaria in Isolates from an Endemic District of Iran

Background: This study investigated the association between pfcrt, T76 allele and chloroquine resistance in patients with falciparum malaria. Molecular assays for point mutations on drugs resistance-related genes are applied tools for monitoring emerging resistance and surveillance malaria control strategies in endemic areas. The mutant genotype at codon 76 of Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter gene (pfcrt) has been proposed as a molecular marker for the faster detection of chloroquine resistance in field. Methods: In 64 samples from patients with uncomplicated falciparum malaria from Sarbaz district in southeast of Iran,  the clinical response to chloroquine and the prevalence of K76T  mutations in pfcrt gene were investigated by in vivo and nested-PCR  followed restriction enzyme digestion methods. Results:  The occurrence of the K76T mutation was very high (60 of 64, i.e. 93.75%) among these filed isolates. Only 4 of 64 isolates harbored wild type K76 codon and no case was a mixed of K76 and 76T codons. All of the 22 (100%) chloroquine-resistant and 16.7% of sensitive isolates were found to harbor the 76T mutation and none was found to contain the wild type (K76) allele. Conclusions: The frequency of chloroquine resistance associated point mutation K76T, in pfcrt gene in this region suggest that detection of this mutation can be applied for predicting chloroquine resistance in epidemiologic settings with sufficiently high sensitivity to make it an attractive alternative to time and labor-consuming in vivo trials

Are perceptions of organizational justice universal? An exploration of measurement invariance across thirteen cultures

Previous research examined whether justice effects are comparable, focusing on quantitative differences in justice effects. This study examines whether justice perceptions are structured similarly or whether they are qualitatively different across working populations from 13 nations. Confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group analysis show that Colquitt’s (J Appl Psychol 86:386–400, 2001) four-dimensional model of justice works well across these samples. However, factor intercorrelations and reliabilities are found to systematically vary between cultural samples. Perceptions of justice are more highly intercorrelated in power distant and collectivistic samples, in line with extensions of the relational model of authority. Score reliabilities were lower in collectivistic settings