fatemeh foroohi

Nowadays, bacterial toxins are considering as powerful therapeutic strategies against the pathogenic organisms and other medical application. Shiga toxin is one of the most studied bacterial toxins found in Shigella dysenteriae and some Escherichia coli serogroups. In this study we screened the presence of Shiga toxin2 (Stx2) genes between the bacteria isolated from the stool and urine samples of the patients affected by diarrhea. Stool and urine samples were cultivated and microbial and biochemical tests were carried out. Well test was optimized for detection of killer phenotype of the bacteria. Colony-PCR and real-time PCR was performed for confirmation of presence of the Stx2 gene in the extracted genomic DNA of the isolated bacteria, and finally, SDS-PAGE was used for differential analysis of protein profile between killer and non-killer bacteria. We optimized in this study a rapid molecular method for screening of Shiga toxin 2 gene. Our presented condition for assay is referable and confident. Also, we purified, detected and analyzed functionally, Shiga toxin 2 peptide and recorded bacterial strains producing Stx2 toxin. In the future, real-time PCR assays can be developed for detection of Enterobacteriaceae virulence genes, including Stx and other its groups. The current study demonstrate that the real-time PCR technique is rapid and simple to use, and it is a promising method for identify Enterobacteriaceae toxins in human samples.

One of the first and most common causes of death in HIV-positive patients is tuberculosis (TB). Due to immunodeficiency and reduced CD4+ cell count in the people with HIV/AIDS, they are susceptible to other infections such as tuberculosis. Although increased access to antiretroviral therapy has led to reductions in HIV-related opportunistic infections and mortality, concurrent management of HIV/TB infection remains a challenge for treating these patients due to side effects, complex drug interactions, and overlapping toxicities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of tuberculosis prevalence in the HIV patients.

This descriptive study was conducted on the records of 100 patients with AIDS infection who had been on antiretroviral therapy for more than 6 months. First, in order to evaluate the simultaneous infection of AIDS and tuberculosis, microscopic examination of patients' sputum samples was performed at three time points. Then, the patients' blood samples were analyzed to count CD4+ cells and viral load by real-time PCR molecular method. The statistical analysis of the obtained results was done by ANOVA and homogeneity of variance using SPSS software and drawing figures was done by R and Excel softwares.

The prevalence rate of tuberculosis infection in HIV patients in the target population was reported as 2%. The gender of both patients with HIV/TB co-infection was female, and their average age was 47 years old. Both of them were unemployed, separated from their spouse, and with education level below diploma. The method of transmission of AIDS disease to both of them was drug use. The amount of CD4 and viral load in both patients had a significant inverse relationship (p<0.01). According to the data of this study, the main method of transmission of AIDS disease was sexual intercourse (52%) and among young people.

Based on the findings of this study, it seems that the co-infection of AIDS and tuberculosis has decreased in the target community, which is confirmed by international experiences. This reduction may be related to the change in the pattern of disease transmission from drug use (16%) to sexual intercourse (52%). In order to generalize the results of this study to the entire statistical population of patients in the country, a wider investigation is needed.

In December 2019, the outbreak of a new type of acute viral respiratory disease (pneumonia) was reported in central China and the number of people infected with it increased rapidly. Specialists named the disease COVID-19 and identified its origin as a virus called SARS-CoV-2. So far, no effective drug has been developed that can be used to definitively treat this disease, but some drugs have been identified and introduced that have shown a significant impact on the recovery of patients. In this review study, several published articles on the structure, characteristics, origin and prevalence of COVID-19 virus, as well as drugs used to inhibit COVID-19 virus, were reviewed. All the documents and articles have been collected from reputable sites PubMed, Google scholar, Scopus with keywords such as "COVID-19", "Coronavirus 2019" and "COVID-19 and drugs". Among the drugs studied in this study, lupinavir and ritonavir have been clinically evaluated in many cases along with complementary drugs such as Interferon Alfa, and the results indicate the effectiveness of this drug in reducing the load capacity of the Betacoronaviruses family. Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been shown to be effective in limiting the replication of COVID-19 in vitro. The antiviral drug amantadine reduces the viruschr('39') replication capacity due to its disruption of the lysosomal pathway. Amantadine, as an anti-influenza drug, prevents the virus from uncoating and releasing its nucleic acid into the respiratory epithelial cells. Remdesivir can also prevent damage to the human lungs caused by coronavirus infection. In relation to favipiravir, studies showed a recovery rate of 91.43%, which indicates a very high effectiveness of this drug. Among the studied drugs, favipiravir and remediator have shown significant effectiveness in many cases and are even recognized and used as COVID-19 effective drug in some countries, so that the efficacy of favipiravir has been reported to be 91.43%. Lupinavir and ritonavir, which have been used in combination with supplements such as Interferon Alpha, as well as hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which reduce the load capacity of the virus, have been shown to be less effective.

Foodborne diseases caused by Salmonella are considered as a global health concern, especially in low-income countries. Rapid and specific detection of this infective agent is highly important in the outbreak control. The current study aimed to design and optimize a LAMP method and to compare its sensitivity and efficiency with the PCR method in the detection of S. typhi in food.

Food samples including mayonnaise and vegetable salad were inoculated with S. enterica serovar Typhi. Sensitivity and detection limit of LAMP test were investigated at different concentrations of contaminated mayonnaise and vegetable salad. invA gene was chosen as the target gene for bacterial detection by PCR and LAMP tests.

The detection limit of Samonella was estimated to be 16 CFU/mL using LAMP and PCR. LAMP reaction revealed a visible turbidity, indicating the accurate amplification of the selected target gene and proper identification of Salmonella at different dilutions of the studied food samples.

The present study indicated that LAMP is a rapid, cost-effective, and specific technique for the identification of Salmonella. This method could be used in laboratories with minimal equipment without the need for costly molecular detection methods.

Aim and Background: Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is causative agent of Johne's disease. The disease is worldwide spread and causes important economic losses in livestock industries. This study was performed on 30 bacterial isolates that different by geographical area (provinces of Tehran and Alborez) and host (cattle, sheep and goat). PCR method was used for amplification of two locos SSR1 and SSR2. The results showed that isolates have different structurally based on SSR1and SSR2 each other and also with the standard strain. The locus of Insertion and Deletion due to repetitive sequences in tandem, different genetic patterns observed that the ability to distinguish between strains provides. Considering the two alleles of each gene, genetic samples were placed in two types.

Policosanol is a component from main alcohol groups with long-chain that extracted from cane sugar. In the present research, the effect of policosanol was investigated on decrease of lipid metabolite levels in blood of hypercholesterolemia rats. A number of 32 male Wistar rats race with average weight of 250 g was divided into four groups including negative control group (n=8) that had normal diet, positive control and experimental groups I and II (n=8) with high cholesterol diet of 2% cholestroled, and respectively they received placebo and policosanol with concentrations 0.25 and 0.5 mg/day. After four weeks, following the treatment of animals and bloodletting, the biochemical traits such as cholesterol biochemical, triglyceride, and LDL-C and HDL-C factors were measured. The results showed that in experimental group (I) there was a significant decrease (p<0.05) in the rate of cholesterol, LDL-C and triglyceride, and significant increase (p<0.05) in HDL-C compared with control group. In experimental group II, there also was a significant decrease (p<0.01) in the rate of cholesterol, LDL-C and triglyceride, and significant increase (p<0.01) in HDL-C compared with control group. Policosanol can be an effective component in decreasing the rate of cholesterol, LDL-C and triglyceride and increasing HDL-C.

Essential oils are volatile, natural, complex compounds formed by aromatic plants as secondary metabolites. In nature, essential oils play an important role in protecting plants in form of antibacterials, antivirals, antifungals, insecticides properties and also against herbivores. They also may attract some insects to use them in dispersion of pollens and seeds, or repel undesirable others. Present study describes the results of our study on the chemical composition, and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils from aerial parts of aromatic plants which collected from province of Tehran. The aerial parts of plants were collected at full flowering stage. The essential oils were isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by combination of capillary GC and GC-MS. Also their antimicrobial activities were considered according to the disc diffusion method and MIC values. Finally, five plant species (Salvia sclarea, salvia multicaulis, salvia verticillata, salvia limbata, Salvia choloroleuca) which showed good significant antibacterial were presented. These five plants belong to labiates’ family. Among these proposed plants salvia multicaulis and Salvia sclarea showed good antibacterial activity.