Effects of Azithromycin and Chlorella vulgaris Treatment on Certain Cytokine Values and NK Cell Activity in an Acute Murine Toxoplasmosis Model

Toxoplasmosis is a common infection with a complicated treatment process. Azithromycin (AZT) is a macrolide antibiotic that can be effectively used in patients with cerebral and ocular toxoplasmosis and has fewer side effects. Chlorella vulgaris (CV), a single-cell green algae that contains nutrients and has various biological effects. CV extract (CVE) has been shown to have protective effects against infections via immune enhancement by increasing the cytotoxicity of NK cells, IL-12 and IFN-gamma levels. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of AZT and CV, individually and in combination, against acute toxoplasmosis in mice, and their effects on NK cell cytotoxixity, IL-12, IFN-gamma, and IL-2 levels. Six groups of mice (Balb/c) were formed. With the exception of the healthy control (HC) group, all other groups were infected with 1 ml (11 x 10(4) trofozoit/ml) Toxoplasma gondii RH strain trophozoites. No further action was performed for infected control (IC) group. After 24 hours from trophozoite infection, CVE was given to CV group, AZT to azithromycin group and CVE + AZT combination to CV + AZT group by oral gavage for 6 days. All of the mice from IC, CV, AZT and CV + AZT groups were sacrified on the 8th day of the infection and serum, peritoneal fluid and spleen samples were collected. Trophozoite count of the groups were determined in all groups except HC group and the average growth inhibition activity was calculated by using the growth inhibition formula. In all groups IL-12, IFN-gamma, IL-2 levels were measured with ELISA method and cytotoxicity of the NK cells were measured using Cytotox 96 Non-Radioactive Cytotoxicity Assay. The number of trophozoites were significantly lower in the CV group than the IC group (p<0.001), and also significantly lower in CV + AZT combination group than the AZT group. According to the growth inhibition calculations CV treatment showed 88.6%, AZT treatment 98.46%, AZT + CV combination treatment 99.4% antiprotozoal activity against T.gondii compared with the IC group. NK cell cytotoxicity in the CV and the combination group were significantly higher than all the other groups (p<0.001). IL-12 and IFN-gamma levels were highest in IC group and the lowest in AZT + CV group. This situation has been linked to the fact that the severity of the infection has fallen considerably. IL-2 levels were significantly higher in CV, CV + AZT groups than in the other groups (p<0.001). In our study, even CV administration alone caused a significant decline in infection. This may be related to the increased NK cytotoxicity, IL-2, IL-12 and IFN-g levels. CV + AZT combination seems to be an effective treatment option than AZT alone, particularly in patients who are difficult to treat with common methods or in patients with immunosuppression

EVALUATION OF BLASTOCYSTIS SPP. AMONG INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE PATIENTS WITH DIFFERENT DIAGNOSTIC METHODS AND SUBTYPE ANALYSES

Objective: Blastocystis spp; is a protozoon that can be seen worldwide. Fecal-oral transmission is the most accepted pathway for Blastocystis spp. infection. Most infected patients show no symptoms of infection, however it can cause abdominal pain, acute or chronic diarrhea, vomiting, flatulence and nausea. It is suggested that Blastocystis spp. may cause several pathologies in gut causing an inflammatory response that may lead to Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

New approaches to in vitro diagnosis of hepatitis C infection a reason for post transfusion hepatitis: Diagnostic value of determination of hepatitis C virus core antigen

In between the dates of February 2008-March 2009, by applying to Istanbul University CTF Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology Basic Sciences Branch and Duzen laboratories, 123 cases, where HCV RNA and anti-HCV positivity are identified with molecular (real-time PCR) and serologic (ELISA) methods as a positive control group, and 48 cases where FICV RNA and anti-HCV negativity are identified as a negative control group are established. The values of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative approximation of recently developed HCV Core Ag (Abbott Diagnostics, Germany) kit are determined successively as 94.3%, 97.9%, 99.1%, 87%, 95.3% and 88%. Although the new HCV Ag assay is clearly not sensitive enough to replace HCV NAT it may serve as a valuable tool in the HCV diagnostic algorithm as it is able to pick up a great majority of anti-HCV and HCV RNA positive samples, thus allowing a timely and less expensive serological diagnosis of an active HCV infection. This may be an advantage for labs that do not have access to PCR easily. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The detection of occult HBV infection in patients with HBsAg negative pattern by real-time PCR method

Aim: Diagnostic problems may be encountered in Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections by serological tests and HBV DNA can be detectable in plasma and liver tissue while the HBsAg test is negative. This situation can be defined as occult or isolated Anti-HBc infections. Occult HBV infections may be divided into two categories by using hepatitis markers. One of them being that all hepatitis markers are negative and the other situation is having Anti-HBc +/- and Anti-HBs + patterns. These situations can be seen in isolated Anti-HBc cases

The importance of transmission time in HIV infections and an epidemiological prospective follow-up study for 1 year in the Marmara Region of Turkey

It is important to detect recent and new HIV/1 infections and to take preventative measures in order to prevent rapid disease progression in AIDS and to decrease the incidence of infection. We aimed to detect long standing or recent HIV infections by determining transmission times for the cases in which first-time HIV/1 seropositivity were detected. The serum samples of 323 cases which were found to be seropositive by ELISA and Western-blotting were included in this study. The discrimination between long-term and recent HIV/1 infection was made by determining transmission-time with the Aware BED-EIA, HIV-1 incidence test (IgG capture HIV-EIA) tests. Ninety-six healthy blood donors who did not have a positive anti-HIV test and a chronic infectious disease for at least 1 year were included in this study as a negative healthy control group. In the discrimination of long-term and recent HIV/1 infections, only in vitro ODn values were used. The cases with normalized optical density (OD) (ODspecimen/ODcalibrator) 1.2 were accepted as long-term HIV/1 infections (more than 155 days history or more than 6 months). The cases with ODn between 0.8 and 1.2 were accepted as "additional tests needed" cases. We detected recent HIV/1 infections (6 months) in 263 (81.5%) out of 323 cases. The most frequently encountered transmission route in long-term and recent HIV/1 infections was heterosexual sexual intercourse as 54(50%) and 257 (97%), respectively. 63.3% of newly infected patients were married females and 65.3% of recently infected patients were males