Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology
Volume:3 Issue: 1, Jan-Mar 2010

Introduction and Legionella pneumophila, the etiological agent of Legionnaires’ disease, is an important cause of both community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonia; therefore, rapid diagnosis and early antibiotic treatment of pneumonia are required. Urinary antigen testing to detect Legionella antigen has proven to be the most powerful diagnostic method. Peptidoglycan-associated lipoprotein (PAL) protein of L. pneumophila, as a component of Legionella antigens, will be detected efficiently by the PAL antigen capture assay and is considered as useful diagnostic antigen to diagnose Legionella infection. Because of the transfer of protein to the periplasmic region of Escherichia coli has numerous advantages including separation from cytoplasmic proteins and the concentration of recombinant proteins in periplasm, the aim of this study was to produce periplasmic PAL protein of L. pneumophila in E. coli. The pal gene of L. pneumophila serogroup 1 was amplified with specific primers, cloned and expressed under pelB signal sequence and T7 lac promoter in pET26b+ plasmid. The cloning was confirmed with digestion and sequencing of recombinant pET-26b-pal plasmid. The expression of r-PAL protein in cytoplasm and periplasmic space of E. coli was approved by SDS-PAGE and western blotting. The results of this study demonstrated that the r-PAL protein successfully expressed in E. coli.

Introduction and Opportunistic fungal infections have been a common cause of morbidity and mortality in the immunosupresed individuals such as AIDS and organ recipients. Treatment of these infections is a great challenge, thus antifungal therapy is playing a greater role in their health care. Traditional plants are a valuable source of novel antifungals. The aim of this study was to assess in vitro antifungal activity of the ethanolic extract of Satureja khuzestanica leaves. In the current experimental study the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of the ethanolic extract of S. khuzestanica leaves was evaluated against saprophytic fungi isolates such as Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Penicillium sp., Fusarium sp., Alternaria sp., Rhizopus sp., and Mucor sp. Antifungal susceptibilities were determined using the agar well diffusion method and amphotericine B was used as positive control as gold therapeutic agent. Our findings showed that the ethanolic extract of S. khuzestanica leaves exhibited antifungal activity against all tested saprophytic fungi with MIC values (625-5000µg/ml). The Results demonstrated that this plant has strong antifungal potential against all tested fungi.

Introduction and Ferulago angulata is an important medicinal plant of Iran. The essential oil of seeds aerial parts of this plant contains variety of components with different therapeutical effects. The purpose of this study was to provide the first examination of the antibacterial and antifungal effects of essential oils obtained from aerial parts and seeds of F. angulata subsp. carduchorum which is endemic to Shahoo Mountains (west of Iran). Chemical composition of the essential oils of seeds and aerial parts of F. angulata subsp. carduchorum was analysed by the Gas Chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The susceptibility of the microorganisms to essential oils was determined by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) using microdilution method. The GC-MS analysis of the essential oils has led to the identification and quantification of 57 components, the most abundant of them were cis-ocimene (27.9%) for aerial parts and α-pinene (76.1%) for seeds. Other compounds present (α-pinene, β-pinene, 4-terpineol, α-terpineol and caryophyllene oxide) have been reported to have antimicrobial effects on bacteria and fungi. Among different bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (MIC= 15µg/ml) and Listeria monocytogenesis (MIC=137µg/ml) disclosed a high sensitivity to essential oils of aerial parts and seeds respectively. These essential oils showed weak activity against fungus (Candida albicans). This study showed that the essential oil of seeds and aerial parts of F. angulata subsp. carduchorum have antimicrobial activity against different infectious microbes.

Introduction and Increasing number of people are using mouthwashes for general and oral health care. Few of these mouthwashes, however, have undergone rigorous testing, as evidenced by the limited amount of information on their safety and efficacy in the literature. The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial properties of ten commonly available mouthwashes against four oral pathogens related to caries and to oral fungal infections, to verify the claims made by the manufacturers to provide information to dental professionals about the efficacy of their products in vitro and to use these mouthwashes as a base for the evaluation of antimicrobial plant products. The authors used two different techniques: microbial growth in nutrient broth by turbidity measurement and an agar well diffusion method to evaluate the antimicrobial effectiveness of ten often used mouthwashes against four microorganisms: Streptococcus mutans and Staphylococcus aureus (bacteria), Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (fungi). Nutrient broth without mouthwash and sterile distilled water served as the control respectively in the two techniques. Hexidine mouthwash emerged as the most effective mouthwash [maximum mean diameter of inhibition zone against S. aureus (28.3mm to 33.9mm) followed by S. mutans (23.6mm to 26mm), S. cerevisiae (20.6mm to 26.3mm) and minimum against C. albicans (11.9mm to 22.9mm)] followed by Chlohex and Triguard, all of which had excellent level of activity. Following Triguard were Zytee, Chlohexplus, Hexnor and Chlorhexidine that showed good antimicrobial activity and finally, displaying very little antimicrobial activity was Listerine while Toss-K and Senquel-AD totally lacked antimicrobial activity. Hexidine mouthwash (ICPA Health Products Ltd., Ankleshwar, India) showed excellent antimicrobial activity against the four dental caries causing microorganisms in vitro. The six mouthwashes found to be effective against all the four tested microorganisms at all the four concentrations, comprising of Chlorhexidine gluconate as the basic constituent, presented different antimicrobial activities.

Introduction and Seroepidemiological studies have shown a significant difference in seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori (HP) and its outcome. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of HP infection in a normal population (patient''s visitors) and to determine frequency of some risk factors of this infectious agent. Cardiac visitors in Razi hospital in Ahvaz were tested for the presence of anti HP-IgG by ELISA assay. Frequency of risk factors for HP acquisition in HP seropositive individuals was studied. The studied subjects included 96 persons with mean age of 58.03 ±11.53 years in whom 52% were females. Fifty five (61.1%) persons presented a positive result for anti HP-IgG test HP Seropositivity was not affected by age, sex and residential area. Crowding was the most important risk factors for HP acquisition.

Introduction and Psoriasis is a chronic, recurrent, and common inflammatory skin disease, characterized by skin and nail involvements. Onychomycosis is a common disease of the nails. The relationship between psoriasis and onychomycosis is ambiguous. We studied this relationship in psoriasis patients with any nail involvement. The nail specimens were prepared by scraping and clippings from the patients with nail changes of psoriasis, which referred to the Department of Dermatology of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences during 2008-2009. These samples were studied through smear preparing and culture. Totally, we studied 60 eligible cases (27 men and 33 women). The mean age was 32±8 years. The most common clinical form of psoriasis was psoriasis vulgaris (63.3%). Only one patient showed yeast in direct microscopy examination, whose culture was negative. This study revealed no statistically significant association between nail psoriasis and fungal infection.