Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology
Volume:7 Issue: 12, Dec 2014

Chemokines play important roles in immune system activation against microbial infections.. The current study aimed to evaluate seminal levels of CXC chemokines CXCL1, CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL12 in Chlamydia trachomatis infected patients.. The C. trachomatis infection was determined employing Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-based methods. Seminal concentrations of CXCL1, CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL12 were measured by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).. The current study results demonstrated that the semen levels of CXCL1 and CXCL9, but not CXCL10 and CXCL12, significantly increased in C. trachomatis infected patients compared to the healthy controls.. Based on the current study results, it may be concluded that both CXCL1 and CXCL9 play more important roles than CXCL10 and CXCL12 in induction of immune responses against C. trachomatis and could possibly be considered as future targets for immunotherapy of C. trachomatis infection..

Amylases play a vital role in biotechnological studies and rank an important position in the world enzyme market (25% to 33%). Bioprocess method of amylase production is more effective than the other sources, since the technique is easy, cost effective, fast, and the enzymes of required properties can be procured.. The current study aimed to report the characteristics of novel amylase producing bacterial strains isolated from Taptapani hot spring, Odisha, India.. Bacterial strains were isolated by dilution plating method from the water samples collected from Taptapani Hot Spring, Odisha and screened for amylase production through starch hydrolysis. The bacterial isolates were identified morphologically, biochemically, and finally by 16S rDNA profiling.. Based on the morphological, physiological, biochemical characteristics and the molecular characterization, the isolates SS1, SS2, and SS3 were identified as Bacillus barbaricus, Aeromonas veroni, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, respectively. The approximate molecular weight of enzymes from SS1, SS2, and SS3 strains were 19 kDa, 56 kDa and 49 kDa, respectively.. The current report isolates, characterizes, and demonstrates the novel heat-adapted amylase-producing bacteria SS1, SS2 and SS3 from Taptapani hot spring, indicating its potentiality and stability under acidic conditions..

Viral acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is a major cause of morbidity in childhood and leads to hospitalization in developed countries, such as Iran.. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and viral types (rotavirus, adenovirus, human parechoviruses-1, and human bocavirus) of acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis in hospitalized children..Patients and Materials: This was a across-sectional prospective study performed at the Pediatric Department of Rasoul Hospital, Tehran, Iran (2009-2011) on 80 hospitalized children with viral AGE. All Stool samples were collected on viral transport media. Human bocavirus (HBoV) was detected using the Real-time PCR TaqMan method. Molecular detection of human parechovirus type 1 (HPeV-1) RNA in stool samples was done using a specific nested reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR). Rota and adeno virus antigens were sought by rapid chromatographic tests. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.. Fever was determined in 47.5% of cases (38), nausea and vomiting in 42.5% (34), respiratory symptoms in 16.3% (13), abdominal pain in 76%. Duration of diarrhea was 1-30 days (mean = 6.3 + 4.3 days). No dehydration was observed in 43.5% of subjects, mild dehydration in 33.8%, moderate dehydration in 17.5% and severe dehydration in 5% of cases. Positive rotavirus was found in 48.8% of cases (39), adenovirus in 20% (16), HBoV in 8% (6) and HPeV-1 in 23.2% (19), and adeno and rotaviruses co-infection in 6% (4). The frequency of positive HBoV was significantly lower than adeno and rotaviruses infection (P value = 0.0001). Rotavirus was more frequent in males (P value = 0.003) and in young children (17.49 months vs. 21.44 months) [P value = 0.03, CI = -13.4, 5.5]. Rotavirus infection was related to the degree of dehydration (P value = 0.001) but was not related to the presence of vomiting or fever (P value > 0.5).. This study indicates that viral agents, especially rotavirus (48.8%), HPeV-1 (23.2%) and adenovirus (20%) are the most important causes for viral AGE in children while HBoV (8%) is infrequent during childhood. Determination of various viral pathogens of AGE is very important in planning diarrhea disease control strategies in our country where rotavirus vaccination in not routinely used.

Clindamycin is a frequently used antimicrobial therapeutic medicine used for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus strains. Resistance to this antibiotic is either constitutive or inducible. Constitutive resistance to clindamycin could be detected by standard susceptibility testing methods. Inducible clindamycin resistance could not be detected by in vitro routine tests. This type of resistance can be identified by D-test.. The outbreak of inducible resistance to clindamycin in methicillin resistant and-susceptible S. aureus isolates were investigated in this study.. Totally 162 S. aureus isolates were evaluated for inducible clindamycin resistance by D-test in accordance with clinical and laboratory standards institute (CLSI) guidelines.. Inducible clindamycin resistance was detected in 8.64% of S. aureus isolates. Inducible and constitutive resistance to clindamycin was found to be higher in methicillin resistant S. aureus (11.95% and 47.8% respectively) compared to methicillin susceptible S. aureus (4.28% and 2.85% respectively) isolates.. Our results showed that inducible resistance to clindamycin in S. aureus isolates is relatively higher in this region. Therefore, D-test should be performed to prevent treatment failures against infections caused by S. aureus, which are resistant to erythromycin and the sensitive ones against clindamycin..

Tuberculosis (TB) remains as one of the most serious infectious diseases in the world. Pulmonary tuberculosis can occur with other pulmonary diseases caused by opportunistic organisms such as Nocardia spp. particularly in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, diagnosis of co-infection at the early stage of the disease could be lifesaving.. The goal of this study was to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Nocardia spp. in sputum specimens in order to assess the concomitant nocardiosis and tuberculosis in patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis..Patients and From March 2011 to April 2012, 189 sputum specimens were obtained from patients who were suspected of having pulmonary tuberculosis. Out of 189 samples, 32 of the samples belonged to hospitalized HIV-infected patients. Samples were examined by Gram and Ziehl-Nelsen staining, culture and PCR methods.. From 157 sputum specimens, positive samples by acid fast staining, culture and PCR for M. tuberculosis were reported for 7.6% (12/157), 10.1% (16/157) and 7% (11/157) of samples, respectively. No results were obtained by the described methods for Nocardia spp. Among 32 samples of HIV-infected patients, four (12.5%) had positive results for acid fast staining, culture and PCR detecting M. tuberculosis while only two samples had positive results for Nocardia spp. by PCR and no results were reported by culture, Gram and acid fast staining for this organism.. Concurrent pulmonary nocardiosis and tuberculosis is frequent in HIV-infected patients. Rapid and sensitive methods such as PCR are recommended for detection of such co-infections..

During the recent decades research has focused to find scientific evidence for the effects of herbal medicines. Researchers are interested in herbal remedies for medication and aim to substitute herbal material instead of chemical formula with limited side effects for human being.. The aim of the current study was to compare the in vitro effect of herbal and chemical mouthwashes against Candida albicans.. In this research, we used a standard strain of C. albicans, PTCC 5027. The suspension was made by a fresh culture of C. albicans (24 hours) and the optical density (turbidity equating to a McFarland standard of 0.5) was read at 530 nm. The C. albicans suspension was cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar plate. Next, two wells were filled with mouthwashes and after incubation at 30ºC for 24 hours, the inhibition zone was measured. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of mouthwashes were determined. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software, independent T-tests and one-sided variance analysis (ANOVA-one way).. Based on these findings on agar diffusion with (P = 0.764), MIC and MFC tests (P = 0.879), there were no significant differences between the antifungal effect of herbal and chemical mouthwashes.. This study showed that, chemical mouthwashes acted better than herbal mouthwashes and among different chemical mouthwashes, Oral B was most effective..

Plants are considered as promising sources of new antibacterial agents as well as bioassay guided fractionation.. In the present work, the antibacterial properties, especially against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), of Bromus inermis inflorescence was studied, using the bioassay guided fractionation as well as the bio-autographic method.. The plant organic extract was prepared via maceration in methanol, followed by the fractionation using n-hexane. The extracts were subjected for minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against some human pathogenic bacteria via standard broth micro-dilution assay. Thereafter, a bio-autographical method was applied using the high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) coupled with agar overlay assays for the primary characterization and identification of bioactive substance (s).. Through the bioassay guided fractionation method, the greatest antibacterial activities were related to the n-hexane extract. It was also revealed that the effective anti-MRSA agent of the assessed plant was a relatively polar substance with an MIC value of about 8 μg/mL against the tested MRSA strain (in comparison with the MIC value of 32 μg/mL for chloramphenicol).. As a result of the full range UV-Vis scanning of the responsible band in the HPTLC experiments (200-700 nm), the flavonoid was the most imaginable natural compound..

Antibiotic resistance is a major therapeutic problem in patients infected with Helicobacter pylori. H. pylori clarithromycin resistant mutants have been evolved during antibiotic therapy, this is mainly due to 23s rRNA point mutations.. In the present study, we investigated anti-mutational features of four traditionally Iranian medicinal plants on three local isolated H. pylori strains.. In this study clarithromycin resistance was used as a mutation indicator. Frequencies of such mutations in the presence and absence of plant extracts were evaluated. Mutation incidence was evaluated by Luria Delbruck fluctuation assay.. The mean mutation frequency in H. pylori isolates was 27 × 10-9 which decreased at the presence of Mirtus communis, Teucrium polium, Achillea millefolium and Thymus vulgaris of plant extract, this amount was 97.4%, 95.2%, 63.7% and 19.6% respectively. Moreover, A-to-G transition at 2143 position (A2143G) was detected by PCR-sequencing as major point mutation causing clarithromycin resistant mutants.. The efficacy of these plant extracts in prohibiting resistance showed considerable results. This finding should be considered to use plant extracts with antibiotics to develop more effective eradication regimens..

The increased life span has led to application of more invasive procedures for diagnosis and treatment of particularly immunosuppressed individuals. This situation drew more attention to fungal infections due to existence of yeast-like fungi. Candida infections have increased due to transplant in patients, prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stays, and invasive procedures. Recently, identification of yeast-like fungi as well as antifungal susceptibility test has been gaining more importance.. In our study, we aimed to evaluate the distribution of yeast-like fungi strains isolated from blood, urine, wound and respiratory specimens, which were sent from various departments of Izmir University School of Medicine University Hospital.. The 262 yeast strains (of 13860 clinical specimens), isolated during 30.05.2012-20.05.2013, which were sent from various departments of Izmir University School of Medicine to Medical Microbiology Laboratory, were included in this study. Blood, wound, respiratory (sputum, tracheal secretion), and urine specimens were cultivated on blood agar and Sabouraud dextrose agar and incubated for 24-48 hours at 37°C. The isolates were cultivated on CHROMagar Candida and Cornmeal Tween 80 medium for identification. Besides, the automatized Vitek version 2.0 system was used for identification of the yeast strains as well as the antifungal susceptibility of blood culture strains.. A total of 262 strains, isolated from the Anesthesiology and Reanimation Unit, as well as from the departments of Hematology, Urology, Infectious Diseases, Gynecology and Obstetrics, and Ear Nose and Throat, were included in this study. The most common isolated yeast-like species was Candida albicans. C. parapsilosis was the most common yeast-like fungus isolated from blood cultures. All the blood culture strains were susceptible to amphotericin B, flucytosine, fluconazole and voriconazole.. Candida strains isolated from newborns, elderly patients, and intensive care patients, identified and isolates from blood cultures, should be studied for antifungal susceptibility for management of the treatment. Our University Hospital is a recently opened center and these are the first data of our center. Gradually, as the number of patients increases, this data will be evaluated further..

The treatment of Acinetobacter baumannii infections is difficult. Carbapenems, sulbactam, and colistin are the most effective antibiotics.. The aim of this study was to evaluate the susceptibilities of genotypically different A. baumannii isolates to sulbactam, amikacin, netilmicin, meropenem, tigecycline and colistin..Patients and Isolates from various clinical samples of patients with hospital-acquired infections that were identified by the VITEK 2 Compact system in our hospital’s microbiology laboratory between January 2010 and March 2012 were included in the study. To determine genetic relatedness of the isolates, the rep-PCR method was used. The broth microdilution method was used for amikacin, netilmicin, meropenem and colistin, while E-test was used for sulbactam and tigecycline.. Among the 300 isolates, 30 were found to be genotypically different and were evaluated in terms of their antimicrobial susceptibilities. All isolates were susceptible to colistin. The susceptibility rates were 66.6%, 50%, 36.6%, 30%, and 10% for netilmicin, tigecycline, sulbactam, amikacin, and meropenem, respectively. For carbapenem resistant isolates, the susceptibility rates were 66.6%, 51.8%, 33.3%, and 25.9% for netilmicin, tigecycline, sulbactam, and amikacin, respectively. The sulbactam minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) 50 and MIC 90 were 8 μg/mL and 12 μg/mL, respectively.. In this study, it was concluded that determining the cut-off value for MIC breakpoints for sulbactam alone has a critical impact on the susceptibility results..

The use of immune suppressive drugs for organ transplant recipients predisposes them to opportunistic infections, especially by fungal agents. Pneumocystis jiroveci, as an opportunistic pathogen, endangers the patients’ life in those with immune system disorders. Early detection of latent Pneumocystis infection in susceptible patients may help choose the optimal treatment for these patients.. The aim of this study was to identify and determine the colonization of latent P. jiroveci infection among lung transplant recipients..Patients and This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on lung transplant recipients. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens were collected from 32 patients undergoing bronchoscopy. The samples were aseptically homogenized by 10 mM dithiothreitol, and their DNA was extracted. The mtLSUrRNA gene of P. jiroveci was amplified using nested PCR in two stages. Nested PCR was performed using external primers of pAZ-102-E and pAZ102-H followed by using the PCR product of the first stage and internal primers of pAZ-102-E and pAZ102-L2.. The genome of P. jiroveci was revealed by a 346 bp PCR product in the initial amplification and a 120 bp product in the nested PCR. The results showed that seven BAL specimens (21.9%) from lung transplant recipients were positive for P. jiroveci.. In molecular epidemiology studies, nested PCR has higher sensitivity than PCR. Results of this study support the colonization of P. jiroveci in patients receiving lung transplantation. Patients who are carriers of P. jiroveci are at a higher risk of P. jiroveci pneumonia..

High prevalence of Tuberculosis (TB) among prisoners is reported as an alarming public health problem in the world, especially in the developing countries.. Since there is almost no information from TB in this population in Khuzestan province, the current study aimed to assess the prevalence and identify risk factors of TB among the prisoners of this region..Patients and In a retrospective study, medical files of patients with Tuberculosis in Khuzestan Health Center (KHC), from 2005 to 2010, were studied. Patients with Pulmonary TB were placed in two groups as the Inmate Prison (IP) and Non-Inmate Prison (NIP) groups. Data extracted from the patients'' records in the two groups were compared by SPSS software system using Chi square and Fisher exact tests. P-value was considered less than 0.05.. From the reported 4562 patients with Tuberculosis, 363 (7.9%) were prison inmates at the time of TB diagnosis. Prevalence of TB cases among the prison inmates was 403.3 per 100''000.The annual TB case rate in the general population during this period was 16.4 per 100,000. Among the TB risk factors close contact [odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI), 19.4, 8.9-41.8, P < 001] especially in the recent 2 years, injection drug use (IDU) [OR, 95% CI, 4.61, 1.7-12.4, P = 006], and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection [OR, 95% CI, 2.4, 1.1-5.0, P = 025] were more frequent in the prisoners than in the general population with TB.. In the region under study the prevalence of TB among the prisoners was higher than the general population. The main risk factors for Pulmonary TB in this population were close contact, IDU and HIV infection..