mojtaba shahnazi

Ziziphora tenuior is considered as an appropriate protoscolicidal agent yet the mechanism of such effect is not known so far. The aim of this study was to evaluate the apoptotic effect of Z. tenuior extract on protoscolices of hydatid cyst.

Protoscolices were collected aseptically and the Bradford test was employed to determine the number required for the experiments. Various concentrations of Z. tenuior extract (5, 50, and 100 mg/mL) was incubated with hydatid cyst protoscolices at 37 oC and 5% Co2 for 4 h. The apoptotic effect of Z. tenuior extract on hydatid cyst protoscolices and the evaluation of caspases 3, 8, and 9 activities were ditermined using ELISA-based commercial diagnostic kits.

In the present study, 50 and 100 mg/mL of Z. tenuior extract produced apoptosis in the protoscolices of hydatid cyst significantly (p<0.05). Also, the activity of caspase 3 at 50 and 100 mg/mL significantly increased by 29.99% and 36.01%, respectively (p<0.05). Similarly, caspase 9 also demonstrated a significant increased activity up to 15.23%, and 45.31% at the same concentrations used for caspase 3, respectively (p<0.05).

Our findings in this study indicated that, Z. tenuior extract can induce apoptotic cell death on hydatid cyst protoscolices by increasing the activity of caspases 3 and 9 via the internal apoptotic pathway.

We aimed to investigate the genotypes of Giardia intestinalis among the food handlers in Qazvin, Iran.

Overall, 1530 stool specimens were collected from the food handlers who visited Shahid Bolandian Health Center, Qazvin, Iran during 2016. Specimens were evaluated by microscopic and concentration methods. Twenty specimens with appropriate number of giardia cysts were selected followed by DNA extraction. Determination of giardia genotypes was achieved through PCR and sequencing the glutamate dehydrogenase gene. The phylogenetic tree was drawn using the MEGA7 software. Finally, the data were analyzed statistically with a P-value<0.05 was considered as significant.

Twenty stool samples (1.3%) were positive for Giardia cyst. All positive specimens were obtained from male participants with abdominal cramp being their most common symptoms. The mean age for infected individuals was 32 yr. Molecular characterization was successfully performed for 17 isolates and two genotypes A (AII, 65%) and B (BIII, 35%) were identified.

The most prevalent giardia genotypes among the food handlers in Qazvin were A (AII) and B (BIII) genotypes with A (AII) genotype as the dominant one in the region. Considering the direct association between the food handlers and public health as well as the impact of geographical and host conditions on dispersion and pathogenicity of various genotypes and their zoonotic aspects, further investigations are necessary.

Intestinal parasites are one of the health challenges in developing countries. Decreasing the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) is one of the main aims of health services in these countries. This study was designed to determine the current status of IPIs in rural residents of Takestan a town located in North West of Iran.

A total of 2280 rural residents of Takestan were randomly selected. Data were collected through questionnaire by interviews and laboratory findings obtained by microscopic examination of stool sample including wet smear and formalin ethyl-acetate concentration. A P <0.05 was considered significant, statistically.

In total, 8.7% (199/2280) of participants were positive for at least one intestinal parasite. The prevalence of polyparasitism was 0.7% in study population. Hymenolepis nana was the only helminthic infection which was detected (1/2280). Blastocystis, Entamoeba coli, and Giardia lamblia were the most common IPIs with prevalence of 3.6%, 2.9%, and 1.6%, respectively. Statistically, the prevalence of IPIs showed significant differences among villages (P<0.01) and age groups (P<0.001), and also habit of eating raw vegetables (P<0.005), whereas, the difference was insignificant in terms of sex, education level, and occupation.

The prevalence of IPIs in rural residents of the study area is considerably low and this reduction was very impressive about helminthic infections.

Toxoplasma gondii is the most common parasite causing latent cerebral infections in human. It has been shown that some anti-psychotic drugs are able to inhibit the proliferation of the parasite in in vitro study. There is very limited data regarding the inhibitory effect of anti-psychotics on Toxoplasma in in vivo. In this study, we evaluated anti-Toxoplasma activity of fluphenazine and thioridazine drugs on T. gondii in mice.
Mice were divided into six groups: Control, sesame as vehicle, thioridazine 10 mg/kg, thioridazine 20 mg/kg, fluphenazine 0.06 mg/kg and fluphenazine 0.6 mg/kg. They were inoculated intraperitoneally with brain suspension containing tissue cysts of T. gondii Tehran strain. Two months after inoculation, the number of cysts in crushed smears of mice brain were counted microscopically and considered as an indicator of anti-Toxoplasma activity. This work has conducted in Qazvin, central Iran, 2014.
Our study showed that fluphenazine and thioridazine could not significantly inhibit the brain cystogenesis of T. gondii in mice. However, the number of brain cysts was less at higher dose compared to lower doses for both drugs.
Further studies need to clear the mechanism of different structure of anti-psychotic drugs on activity of Toxoplasma.

Hydatidosis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases and surgery is still the main treatment for this problem. One of the side effects of hydatid cyst surgery is recurrence, thus, searching and assessment of some new agents such as medicinal plant extracts are very important. In the present study, the scolicidal effect of ethanolic extract of Ziziphora tenuior L. (Z. tenuior) was investigated.
Protoscolices were aseptically collected from sheep livers containing hydatid cyst and used in the experiments. Z. tenuior extract was used at concentration of 3-100 mg/ml for 10-60 min. Viability of protoscolices was determined by 0.1% eosin staining.
Based on our results, Z. tenuior extract at concentration of 10 mg/ml killed all protoscolices after 20 min. However, this medicinal plant at concentration of 25 mg/ml destroyed all protoscolices in a shorter exposure time (10 min). Therefore, the scolicidal activity of the extract at 10 and 25 mg/ml concentrations was considerably effective in lower concentrations and shorter exposure times.
The findings of this study showed that the ethanolic extract of Z. tenuior produces high scolicidal activity; it may be used as an appropriate and effective scolicidal agent in hydatidosis surgery. This is the first report on the protoscolicidal activity of Z. tenuior.

There are supportive evidences about the possible role of latent Toxoplasma. gondii infections on the behavior and neurologic functions, such as increased dopamine levels in the brain. The aim of this study was to examine anti-toxoplasma activity of aripiprazole that is an atypical anti-psychotic drug in mice. Mice were randomly divided into four groups, including; control, vehicle, aripiprazole 10 mg/kg, and aripiprazole 20 mg/kg. The mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with mice brain suspension containing tissue cysts. At the end of second month, the number of cysts was counted in smears prepared from brain homogenate by optical microscope. There was no significant difference between mean logarithms of brain cyst numbers of aripiprazole groups compared with control. Results indicate that in aripiprazole groups, the brain cystogenesis was not decrease. Further study needs to investigate the role of anti-psychotic drugs on T. gondii.

Artemisia absinthium L. (known as wormwood) is used as an antihelminthical, antimalarial, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory agent, and also in the treatment of gastric pain, in traditional medicine.. In the present study, we have evaluated the effects of the ethanolic extract of A. absinthium L. on the maturation and function of dendritic cells (DCs).. The immunomodulatory effects of A. absinthium L. extract on DCs phenotypic maturation were determined by flow cytometry. The ability of the treated DCs to stimulate allogenic T cells proliferation and cytokines secretion was examined by mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and enzyme-linked immuosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively.. A. absinthium L. extract showed that it could promote DCs phenotypic maturation by increasing the level of surface expression of CD40 as an important costimulatory marker on the DCs, compared to the control. Extract with concentration below 100 µg/mL significantly increased the production of interleukin (IL)-12 cytokine by DCs. The same 100 µg/mL concentration A. absinthium L. inhibited the proliferation of allogenic T cells and also significantly increased the level of IL-10 (P < 0.001). Moreover, the extract with concentrations below 100 µg/mL significantly increased production of interferon-γ (IFN-γ). Nevertheless, these changes were not significant for IL-4 production.. Artemisia absinthium L. extract, at concentrations below 100 µg/mL, can modulate the immune response toward a Th1 pattern, by induction of CD40 expression on DCs and cytokine production. Also, it can inhibit DCs T cell stimulating activity, at high concentrations. Therefore, the traditional use of this plant possibly modulates immune-mediated disorders. However, future studies are needed to confirm these results..

Toxoplasma specific IgM antibodies; the common serologic marker in diagnosis of acute toxoplasmosis has its own limitations. Confirmatory testing with other markers, introduced as a complementary tool in distinguish acute and chronic infections is unusual in Iran. In the present study, we investigated the correla­tion between the results of IgM ELISA, IgA ELISA, and IgG avidity tests in the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis to demonstrate the necessity of confirmatory testing in serodiagnosis of infection in the country. A total of 107 positive Toxoplasma IgG and IgM sera were obtained from patients referred to private laboratories and stored at -20 ºC for futures use. Sero­logic tests were set up in duplicate to analyze the serum levels of IgG, IgM, IgA, and IgG avidity antibodies using commercial ELISA kits. The results were pre­sented as semi quantitative for IgG, IgM and IgA ELISA, and Relative Avidity In­dex in percentage for IgG avidity test. Pearson’s correlation coefficient (rp) was applied to analyze the data. Of 107 serum samples, T. gondii specific IgM and IgA antibodies were positive in 67.3% and 53.3%, respectively. Besides, 29.9% of the sera displayed low avidity for IgG antibodies. The rp was - 0.572 (P<0.01) between the IgG avidity and IgM ELISA, - 0.364 between the IgG avidity and IgA ELISA (P<0.01), and 0.564 between the IgM and IgA ELISA (P<0.01). The study strongly highlights the necessity of confirmatory testing in differential diagnosis of acute and chronic toxoplasmosis in Iran.