Comparison of Biochemical and Molecular Methods for the Identification of Candida Species Causing Vulvovaginal Candidiasis and Recurring Vulvovaginal Candidiasis

Background and Aim: Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a common clinical problem that affects most adult women at least once during their life time. Many also have frequently recurring yeast infections (RVVC) caused by Candida albicans and non albicans Candida species. We studied use of CHROMagar Candida and PCR-RFLP to compare their differential ability and time consuming.  Materials and Methods: Vaginal discharge samples of all women with clinical signs were cultured on CHROM agar Candida medium .After an overnight incubation at 37°C, growth coloration of Candida isolates compared with those of standard patterns. PCR-RFLP using restriction enzyme Msp I were used for the identification of more  Candida isolates in the level of species.Results: Totally 192 vaginal discharge samples were obtained from the women with vulvovaginitis clinical signs. 90 patients had Candida vulvovaginitis, 11 case were RVVC. The Candida species which were identified included, C.albicans (78.8%), C.glabrata (7.7 %), C. parapsilosis (6.6%) , C. tropicalis (4.4 %) and C. krusei (2.2 %). Conclusions: We concluded that, use of PCR-RFLP is recommended for the identification of Candida species causing VVC and RVVC in accompany with the culture based methods, regarding to its differential power and speed

Human parvovirus B19 in Iranian pregnant women: A serologic survey

Background: Parvovirus B19 infection is associated with clinical symptoms that vary in the spectrum from trivial to severe. The important clinical manifestations are erythema infectiosum or the fifth disease, transient aplastic anemia in patients with hemoglobinopathies, acute polyarthralgia syndrome in adults, hydrops fetalis, spontaneous abortion and stillbirth. Acute infection in nonimmune pregnant women can lead to fetal hydrops. In view of the many complications that can result from acute parvovirus B19 infections during pregnancy, documenting the seroprevalence of anti-parvovirus B19 IgG and its association with the history of abortion in an Iranian population of pregnant women would be of value. Materials and Methods: Serum samples from 86 pregnant women were collected between May and September 2011 in West Azerbaijan province of Iran. Every pregnant woman completed a questionnaire which included age, history of tattooing, blood transfusion, and abortion. Anti-B19 specific IgG was detected by using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results: Anti-B19-specific IgG antibody was detected in (65/86, 75.6%) of pregnant women. The mean age was 25.56 ± 5.30 years and three women had a documented history of blood transfusion (2 of them tested seropositive for B19). 16/18 (88.8%) of women with a history of abortion were IgG positive. The frequency of abortion sessions in the seropositive group (25 sessions of abortion: 11 women experienced once, 2 twice, 2 thrice and one 4 times) was 4.03 times greater than abortion in seronegative group (2 abortions/21 seronegative women). Conclusion: Our study reaffirms previous reports regarding the higher frequency of abortion among anti-B19 IgG seropositive pregnant women and a possible role of this viral infection in the pathogenesis of abortion

Identification of Echinococcus Granulosus Strains in Isolated Hydatid Cyst Specimens from Animals by PCR-RFLP Method in West Azerbaijan – Iran

Background: The aim of this study was DNA extraction from protosco­lecses of Echinococcus granulosus and identification of these strains in West-Azerbai­jan Province, north western Iran.Methods: Thirty one livestock isolates from sheep and cattle were collected from abattoirs of the province. To investigate the genetic variation of the isolates, after DNA extraction by Glass beads-phenol chloroform method; PCR-RLFP analysis of rDNA-ITS1 was performed using three different restric­tion enzymes of Taq 1, Rsa 1 and Alu 1.Result: Amplified PCR products for all isolates were 1000bp band which is expected band in sheep strains (G1-G3 complex). The results of RFLP analy­sis also were the same for all isolates. PCR-RFLP patterns restriction en­zymes were identical as follows, Rsa1 bands under UV showed two bands approximately 655bp and 345bp. Alu1 bands were as follows: two approx­imately 800bp and 200bp and Taq1 did not cut any region and bands were approximately 1000 bp in all samples.Conclusions: Based on PCR-RFLP patterns of ITS1 fragment produced with endonucleases enzyme digestion in animal isolates, it can be concluded that a single strain of E. granulosus (sheep strain or G1-G3 complex) is domi­nant genotype in this provinc

Antimalarial activity of Alcoholic Extract of Curcuma longa and Heracleum persicum on Cultivated Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 strain: Antimalarial Effect of C. longa and H. persicum

Introduction: Plasmodium falciparum causes the most fatal form of malaria in human. At present, the common treatments are not effective enough and the incidence of drug resistance is being increased in malarious areas. Therefore, presenting the novel methods for therapeutic purposes assumes significant importance.  Recent studies indicated that aqueous or alcoholic extracts of Curcuma longa and Heracleum persicum showed a broad spectrum of anti-microorganisms activity. In this in vitro study the effects of C. longa and H. persicum extracts were assessed on P. falciparum since there has been limited clinical research into their effectiveness on Malaria. Materials and Methods:  The alcoholic extracts of H. persicum and C. longa were prepared in 10-1, 10-3 and 10-5 mg/ml dilutions. These solutions were tested on P. falciparum with 10% parasitemia in RPMI 1640 medium with 10% hematocrit. Each of dilutions was examined in triplicate and the inhibitory effect of the solutions on parasites was measured via determining the average parasitemia and their schizont rate. Finally, the results were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: The rate of parasitemia declined in three different dilutions of both H. persicum and C. longa. The mean of antiplasmodial inhibitory activity of herbs was 83.23±2.47% in H.persicum and 99.91±0.0% in C.longa. Moreover, all dilutions of both H.persicum and C.longa showed significant effect on decreasing of schizont percentage in comparison with control group (P-value<0.05). Conclusions: the present study indicated that alcoholic extracts of C. longa and H. persicum possess acceptable antiplasmodial effects and could be developed as valuable alternatives to ineffective antimalarial drugs. These results support the claims of recent studies that C. longa and H. persicum, have considerable antimicrobial activities. Considering notable in vitro antiplasmodial efficacy of C.longa and H.persicum, further studies with in vivo method is recommended