faham khamesipour

Malaria is one of the leading causes of death in many developing countries. Fever, anemia, and weight loss are the most important complications, and anemia is the main cause of death in patients. In this regard, the present study investigated the effect of Dracocephalum kotschyi essential oil on the control of some malaria complications in mice infected with Plasmodium berghei acting as an in vivo model of malaria.

P. berghei strain was donated by the Institute of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, and injected into the peritoneum of Balb/c mice for proliferation and maintenance. In malaria-infected mouse groups, after treatment with different concentrations of plant essential oil and chloroquine as a positive control drug, changes in rectal temperature and weight of mice, white and red blood cell count, hemoglobin, and packed cell volume were measured and compared with the positive and negative control groups.

On the seventh day of the experiment, the mean percentage of parasite suppression in the groups which received this essential oil was significantly higher than negative control. Also, the mean number of red blood cells and the mean levels of hemoglobin, and packed cell volume were noticeably higher in the groups which received different doses of essential oil.

The essential oil of D. kotschyi can be used as an effective agent to control the complications of acute malaria.

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that lives inside its host cells, with cats reported as its final host. T. gondii causes toxoplasmosis infection, showing severe symptoms in infected fetuses and individuals with defective immune systems. Drugs used to treat toxoplasmosis have numerous side effects on patients, including toxicity and drug resistance.

This study aimed to investigate the same in vivo anti-Toxoplasma activity of Dracocephalum polychaetum essential oil. Moreover, this study aimed to investigate the effect of different concentrations of D. polychaetum essential oil on the survival rate of mice infected with T. gondii.

The T. gondii RH strain was used in the present study. Moreover, 60 BALB/c mice aged 4 - 6 weeks with an average weight of 20 - 25 g were used to evaluate the in vivo anti-Toxoplasma effect of D. polychaetum essential oil. The BALB/c mice were divided into six groups of 10 cases. One negative control group received Phosphate buffered saline (PBS); two treatment groups received pyrimethamine (25 mg/kg) and sulfadiazine (500 mg/kg), and three other groups received 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg of essential oil, respectively. The data were analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier nonparametric method and log-rank test in SPSS software (version 16) at a significance level of 0.05.

The survival rate of the acutely infected mice was evaluated by the intraperitoneal injection of the essential oil (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg-1 day-1) infected with tachyzoites. There was no general significant difference between the mean survival rate of the studied groups (P > 0.05). However, essential oil and negative and positive controls that showed the best anti-Toxoplasma activity were assayed in triplicate at each concentration.

A concentration of 200 mg/kg of D. polychaetum essential oil had a greater significant anti-Toxoplasma effect than other groups.

Helicobacter pylori is the most common cause of Gastritis and indigestion in the human. Considering the importance of this infection and its different prevalence in different regions of Iran, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of H. pylori vacA allels and cagA gene in the feces of seroposetive children in Kermanshah city as a high-risk province In this study, 300 children aged 2 to 9 years were examined and tested for detection of anti IgG. Then DNA extracted from stools of seropositive patients and at the present of specific primers prevalence of cagA gene and vacA alleles including (s1a, s1b, s1c, s2, m1and m2) and were determined. A total of 300 serum samples, 50 cases (16.66%) positive for anti IgG against H. pylori.The findings showed that most strains of H. pylori genotypes vacA s2/m2 are isolated. But the frequency of cagA gene sees in only 10 %. According to the results, the most frequent allele of the gene vacA s2/m2 this area has existing children. To ensure these wider molecular studies in other populations is recommended.

Foodborne diseases are one of the most important economic and health problems in the industrial and non-industrial countries and the prevalence is increasing. Salmonella species are one of the primary food-borne pathogens and Salmonellosis is one of the most important zoonotic bacterial pathogen of food-borne infection all around the world. The present study was carried out to report the molecular prevalence of Salmonella typhimurium isolated from chicken meet in Isfahan city, Iran. From April to September 2013, a total 200 chicken meet samples were collected from in Isfahan city. Both culture method and PCR method was used for detection of Salmonella spp, in order to detect Salmonella typhimurium serotype; we used specific primers mentioned in reference. A total of 200 chicken meet samples 28 samples (14%) were contaminated with Salmonella spp. After amplification of ST gene, 14 of 28 (50%) samples were diagnosed Salmonella typhimiurum. The contamination of food with bacteria such as Salmonella virulence trait means an outbreak of food poisoning among people in society. That it tends to be a health risk and other irreparable damages, so the identification of common serotypes of this bacterium is important.

Urinary Tract Infections (UTI), and their complications, cause serious health problems, which affect millions of people every year. Infections of the urinary tract are the second most common type of infection in the body and approximately 20% of women are especially prone to UTIs for reasons not yet well understood. Urinary Tract Infections in men are not as common as in women yet can be very serious when they do occur. Accurate identification of bacterial isolates is an essential task of the clinical microbiology laboratory.. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence and variety of the causative microbial agents of UTIs in patients who had referred to a medical laboratory of Kashani and Hajar hospital in Shahrekord, Iran..Patients and In this cross-sectional study 147 urine samples of patients (urine test results were positive for UTIs) were examined during April to September 2013. A total of 147 urine samples of patients with clinical symptoms of UTI who had been referred to a medical laboratory of Kashani and Hajar hospital in Shahrekord (Iran), were collected and processed immediately for laboratory analysis.. Escherichia coli was identified as the most common causative agent of UTIs (51.70% of total isolates in both sexes), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. Pneumoniae) (16.32%). Frequency of Proteus spp., Acinetobacter spp., Entrobacter spp., Citrobacter spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and Providencia spp. was 10.88%, 6.12%, 5.44%, 4.08%, 3.40% and 2.04%, respectively. Statistical analysis by Fisher exact test showed that there was no significant relationship between the type of bacteria and gender (P > 0.05). Chi square test showed that there was no significant relationship between the type of bacteria and the use of catheter and age group (P > 0.05). However, there was a significant relationship between the type of bacteria and the history of hospitalization (P > 0.05).. Our findings implied that a wide range of bacteria could be involved in creating urinary tract infection in patients referred to a medical laboratory of Kashani and Hajar hospital in Shahrekord, Iran. Regardless of age, sex and the use of catheter, a wide range of bacteria could be involved in urinary tract infections..

Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite, which is assumed to have cosmopolitan distribution. Adopting a cross-sectional study design the current research aimed to determine the occurrence of the parasite in cattle, camels and sheep in Isfahan and Chaharmahal va Bakhtiary provinces of Iran. Animals in the field and those brought for slaughter at abattoirs were included. Blood samples were randomly collected from animals and investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). T. gondii infections were detected in 0.00%, 6.60% and 17.9% of the sample cattle (n = 155), camels (n = 122) and sheep (n = 95) respectively. Sheep were more frequently affected in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiary (33.33%) compared to Isfahan (8.47%) (P = 0.005, 95%; CI = 6.88-43.35). No statistically significant difference was observed in infection prevalence between camels and sheep; and between the different sex categories in both camels and sheep. Evidence of T. gondii occurrence in sheep and camels was provided in the provinces under study. There is a need to investigate the potential risk factors of zoonotic infections. Furthermore, animal health and production losses caused by the parasite; and associated zoonotic implications in the area under study need to be explored.