Molecular identification of potentially pathogenic free-living amoebae in environmental samples from urban areas of Kerman, Southeastern Iran Abbas Ali Ghasemi, Elham Akhlaghi, Zahra Babaei, Naser Zia-ali, Sima Rostami, Mehdi Borhani, Tayyebeh Ghasemi, Majid Fasihi Harandi Parasite Epidemiology and Control, 2026 species. The presence of potentially pathogenic FLA in urban environments in Iran presents potential hazards of infection for the people and appropriate measures needed to minimize the risks to human health including disinfection of water systems using chlorine dioxide, molecular monitoring, the implementation of educational measures for the public and health professionals.
Identification of CβS and ODC antimony resistance markers in anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis field isolates by gene expression profiling Farzaneh Zarrinkar, Iraj Sharifi, Razieh Tavakoli Oliaee, Ali Afgar, Elaheh Molaakbari, Mehdi Bamorovat, Zahra Babaei, Ebrahim Eskandari, Ehsan Salarkia, Marzieh Asadi Parasite Epidemiology and Control, 2025 Antiparasitic resistance represents a serious global public health concern with tremendous economic and safety implications. This study intended to investigate the expression of the two major resistant markers: cystathionine β synthase (CβS) and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) in antimony unresponsive Leishmania tropica isolates compared to responsive ones. Twenty-six patients were randomly selected from widely known foci of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in southeastern Iran. Written informed consent of the patients was obtained. Two smears were prepared from the edge of each active lesion; one for microscopic direct smear preparation and the other for inoculation into monophasic NNN media, then for mass production of promastigotes into RPMI-1640 monophasic culture for performing nested PCR and gene expression quantification by real-time PCR. Twenty-six patients consisting of 13 unresponsive and 13 responsive equally distributed among female and male groups. All cases were identified to be L. tropica. Both resistant gene markers were significantly up-regulated in unresponsive and responsive isolates. The findings showed that CβS and ODC are directly linked with the resistance to L. tropica. Alternative drugs or combination therapy and monitoring drug resistance to prevent the spread of resistant isolates are proper strategies to control the disease.
The effects of L-carnitine supplementation on inflammation, oxidative stress, and clinical outcomes in critically Ill patients with sepsis: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial Mahdi Keshani, Babak Alikiaii, Zahra Babaei, Gholamreza Askari, Zahra Heidari, Manoj Sharma, Mohammad Bagherniya Nutrition Journal, 2024 Background Sepsis, a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a host’s dysregulated response to infection with an inflammatory process, becomes a real challenge for the healthcare systems. L-carnitine (LC) has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as in previous studies. Thus, we aimed to determine the effects of LC on inflammation, oxidative stress, and clinical parameters in critically ill septic patients. Methods A randomized double-blinded controlled trial was conducted. A total of 60 patients were randomized to receive LC (3 g/day, n = 30) or placebo (n = 30) for 7 days. Inflammatory and oxidative stress parameters (C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), 28-day mortality rate, and some monitoring variables were evaluated. Results There was no statistically significant difference between study arms in baseline characteristics and disease severity scores. CRP (p < 0.001) and ESR (p: 0.004) significantly reduced, and SOD (p < 0.001) and TAC (p < 0.001) significantly improved in the LC group after 7 days. Between-group analysis revealed a significant reduction in CRP (p: 0.001) and serum chloride (p: 0.032), an increase in serum albumin (p: 0.036) and platelet (p: 0.004) significantly, and an increase in SOD marginally (p: 0.073). The 28-day mortality rate was also lower in the LC group compared with placebo (7 persons vs. 15 persons) significantly (odds ratio: 0.233, p: 0.010). Conclusions L-carnitine ameliorated inflammation, enhanced antioxidant defense, reduced mortality, and improved some clinical outcomes in critically ill patients with sepsis. Trial registration IRCT20201129049534N1; May 2021.
Assessment of the antileishmanial activity of diallyl sulfide combined with meglumine antimoniate on Leishmania major: Molecular docking, in vitro, and animal model Farzaneh Zarrinkar, Iraj Sharifi, Ehsan Salarkia, Alireza Keyhani, Zahra Babaei, Ali Khamesipour, Maryam Hakimi Parizi, Elaheh Molaakbari, Fatemeh Sharifi, Shahriar Dabiri, Mehdi Bamorovat Plos One, 2024 Currently, no safe vaccine against leishmaniasis is available. So far, different control strategies against numerous reservoir hosts and biological vectors have not been environment-friendly and feasible. Hence, employing medicinal components and conventional drugs could be a promising approach to developing novel therapeutic alternatives. This study aimed to explore diallyl sulfide (DAS), a dynamic constituent of garlic, alone and in a mixture with meglumine antimoniate (MAT as standard drug) using in vitro and animal model experiments against Leishmania major stages. The binding affinity of DAS and four major defense elements of the immune system (iNOS, IFN-ɣ, IL-12, and TNF-α) was used to predict the predominant binding mode for molecular docking configurations. Herein, we conducted a broad range of experiments to monitor and assess DAS and MAT potential treatment outcomes. DAS, combined with MAT, displayed no cytotoxicity and employed a powerful anti-leishmanial activity, notably against the clinical stage. The function mechanism involved immunomodulation through the induction of Th1 cytokine phenotypes, triggering a high apoptotic profile, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and antioxidant enzymes. This combination significantly decreased cutaneous lesion diameter and parasite load in BALB/c mice. The histopathological findings performed the infiltration of inflammatory cells associated with T-lymphocytes, particularly CD4+ phenotypes, as determined by biochemical markers in alleviating the amastigote stage and improving the pathological changes in L. major infected BALB/c mice. Therefore, DAS and MAT deserve further advanced therapeutic development and should be considered as possible candidates for treating volunteer cases with cutaneous leishmaniasis in designing an upcoming clinical trial.
Catalytic Differences between Flavohemoglobins of Giardia intestinalis and E. coli Sarah Hill, Isabelle Decorso, Novin Nezamololama, Zahra Babaei, Steven Patrick Rafferty Pathogens, 2024 The sole known heme enzyme of the parasitic protist Giardia intestinalis is a flavohemoglobin (gFlHb) that acts as a nitric oxide dioxygenase (NOD) and protects the organism from the free radical nitric oxide. To learn more about the properties of this enzyme, we measured its nitric oxide dioxygenase, NADH oxidase, and cytochrome c reductase activities and compared these to the activities of the E. coli flavohemoglobin (Hmp). The turnover number for the NOD activity of gFlHb (23 s−1) is about two-thirds of that of Hmp (34 s−1) at pH 6.5 and 37 °C. The two enzymes differ in their sensitivity towards molecules that act as heme ligands. For both gFlHb and Hmp, inhibition with miconazole, a large imidazole ligand, is adequately described by simple competitive inhibition, with KI = 10 μM and 0.27 μM for gFlHb and Hmp, respectively. Inhibition plots with the small ligand imidazole were biphasic, which is consistent with previous experiments with carbon monoxide as a probe that show that the active site of flavohemoglobins exists in two conformations. Interestingly, the largest difference is observed with nitrite, which, like imidazole, also shows a biphasic inhibition plot; however, nitrite inhibits gFlHb at sub-millimolar concentrations while Hmp is not significantly affected. NADH oxidase activity measured under aerobic conditions in the absence of nitric oxide for Hmp was more than twice the activity of gFlHb. The addition of 1 mM hydrogen peroxide in these assays stimulated the NADH oxidase activity of gFlHb but not Hmp. Both enzymes had nearly identical cytochrome c reductase activities but the extent of the contribution of indirect reduction by flavohemoglobin-generated superoxide was much lower with gFlHb (4% SOD-inhibited) than with Hmp (17% SOD-inhibited). Although the active sites of the two enzymes share the same highly conserved residues that are important for catalysis, differences in the distal ligand binding site may account for these differences in activity and sensitivity towards NOD inhibitors. The differences observed in the NADH oxidase and cytochrome c reductase assays suggest that gFlHb may have evolved to protect the protist, which lacks both superoxide dismutase and catalase, from the damaging effects of superoxide by minimizing its production and from peroxide by actively reducing it.
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Hampers COVID-19: A Controlled Cross-Sectional Study in High-Burden Endemic Areas of Iran Mehdi Bamorovat, Iraj Sharifi, Mehdi Shafiei Bafti, Setareh Agha Kuchak Afshari, Mohammad Reza Aflatoonian, Ali Karamoozian, Abdollah Jafarzadeh, Raheleh Amirzadeh, Ahmad Khosravi, Zahra Babaei, Farzane Safa, Fatemeh Sharifi, Amireh Heshmatkhah Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health, 2024 Introduction Emerging infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2 can cause pandemics and create a critical risk for humans. In a previous pilot study, we reported that the immunological responses induced by cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) could decrease the incidence and severity of COVID-19. In this large-scale case–control study, we assessed the possible relationship between mortality and morbidity of COVID-19 in healed CL persons suffering scars compared to cases without CL history. Methods This controlled cross-sectional study was conducted between July 2020 and December 2022 in the endemic and high-burden areas of CL in southeastern Iran. In the study, 1400 previous CL cases with scars and 1,521,329 subjects who had no previous CL were analyzed. We used R 4.0.2 to analyze the data. Firth’s bias reduction approach corresponding to the penalization of likelihood logistic regression by Jeffreys was also employed to influence the variables in the dataset. Also, a Bayesian ordinal logistic regression model was performed to explore the COVID-19 severity in both case and referent groups. Results The occurrence and severity rate of COVID-19 in CL scar cases are significantly less than in the non-CL control group, while in the CL scar subjects, patients with critical conditions and mortality were not observed. The morbidity (OR = 0.11, CI 0.06–0.20 and P < 0.001) and severity of COVID-19 in previous cases with CL scars were significantly diminished than that in the control group (credible interval − 2.57, − 1.62). Conclusions The results represented a durable negative relationship between cured CL and COVID-19 incidence and severity. Additional studies seem necessary and should be designed to further validate the true impact and underlying mechanistic action of CL on COVID-19. Graphical abstract
The Molecular Investigation of the mecA Gene and Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis Isolated from Patients with Immune System Disorders at Omid Hospital, Isfahan, Iran Zahra Babaei, Monir Doudi, Ladan Rahimzadeh Torabi Avicenna Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2023 Background: At present, antibiotic-resistant staphylococci, especially methicillin-resistant strains, are prevalent agents of infections in medical centers and hospitals. The objective of the present investigation was to discern and trace the methicillin resistance gene harbored in two bacterial strains, namely Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, obtained from clinical specimens gathered from patients exhibiting immune system deficiency at Omid hospital located in Isfahan. Methods: The present investigation was conducted utilizing a descriptive cross-sectional approach. Initially, a total of 70 clinical isolates comprising 35 isolates of S. aureus and 35 isolates of S. epidermidis were obtained from patients who were diagnosed with immunodeficiency and admitted to Omid Hospital located in Isfahan, Iran, from January 2017 to April 2018. After the characterization of the isolates via morphological and biochemical assessments, subsequent evaluation of their antibiotic sensitivity was performed through the utilization of disk diffusion and Epsilometer test (E-test). Then, the identification of the isolates was conducted using the colony PCR method incorporating primers (MCF, MCR, GAIF, and GAIR) and elucidated through molecular analysis. Results: In this study, all isolates of S. aureus were resistant to cefoxitin and the MIC of this antibiotic was confirmed using E-test. However, of 35 S. epidermidis isolates, 30 isolates (85.7%) were resistant to oxacillin and 5 isolates (14.3%) were sensitive to oxacillin. According to the molecular findings, out of 35 isolates of methicillin-resistant S. aureus, 4 isolates (11.4%) had the mecA gene, and out of 35 isolates of S. epidermidis, 10 isolates (28.5%) had the mecA gene. Conclusion: The present study revealed that precise detection of methicillin resistance in the aforementioned bacterial strains necessitates the employment of both phenotypic and genotypic methods. The frequency of the mecA gene in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was found to be declining. The incidence of methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE) is on the rise.
Prevalence and associated-factors for Entamoeba gingivalis in adolescents in southeastern Iran by culture and PCR, 2017 Iranian Journal of Public Health, 2020
Associated-risk determinants for anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis treated with meglumine antimoniate: A cohort study in Iran Mohammad Reza Aflatoonian, Iraj Sharifi, Behnaz Aflatoonian, Mehdi Bamorovat, Amireh Heshmatkhah, Zahra Babaei, Pooya Ghasemi Nejad Almani, Mohammad Ali Mohammadi, Ehsan Salarkia, Abbas Aghaei Afshar, Hamid Sharifi, Fatemeh Sharifi, Ahmad Khosravi, Mehrdad Khatami, Nasir Arefinia, Alireza Fekri, Saeideh Farajzadeh, Ali Khamesipour, Mehdi Mohebali, Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, Mohammad Reza Shirzadi, Rajender S. Varma Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2019
Considerable genetic diversity of Trichomonas vaginalis clinical isolates in a targeted population in south of Iran Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2017
Molecular detection and genetic diversity of Toxoplasma gondii in different tissues of sheep and goat in Eastern Iran Tropical Biomedicine, 2017
Visceral leishmaniasis in southeastern Iran: A narrative review Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2017
Leishmania major: Genetic profiles of the parasites isolated from Chabahar, Southeastern Iran by PPIP-PCR Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2016
Designing and cloning molecular constructs to knock out N-acetylglucosamine phosphatidylinositol de-N-acetylase (GPI12) gene in Leishmania major (MRHO/IR/75/ER) Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2016
Efficacy of the bunium persicum (Boiss) essential oil against acute toxoplasmosis in mice model Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2015
Canine visceral leishmaniasis in kerman, southeast of iran: A seroepidemiological, histopathological and molecular study Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2014
Pathogenic assays of Acanthamoeba belonging to the T4 genotype Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2013
Genotype of Giardia duodenalis isolates from humans using glultamate dehydrogenase (gdh) gens by PCRRFLP Life Science Journal, 2013
Fatal case of Plasmodium vivax malaria in a splenectomized patient Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2012
Seroprevalence of human hydatidosis using ELISA method in Qom province, central Iran Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2012
Cryptosporidium spp. infection in human and domestic animals Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2012
Genotyping of giardia duodenalis isolates in individuals with and without chronic diarrhea using polymerase chain reaction Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, 2012
A sensitive and specific PCR basedmethod for identification of cryptosporidium sp. using new primers from 18S ribosomal RNA Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2011
The correlation between clinical signs and genotypes of Giardia duodenalis isolated from patients with giardiasis in Kerman city Journal of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, 2011
Isolation of free-living amoebae from sarein hot springs in ardebil province, Iran Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2011
Enteric protozoan parasites in rural areas of Bandar-Abbas, southern Iran: Comparison of past and present situation Iranian Journal of Public Health, 2011
Molecular identification and sequencing of Mannose Binding Protein (MBP) gene of Acanthamoeba palestinensis Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2010
Evaluation of a single PCR assays on Cp5 gene for differentiation of Entamoeba histolytica and E. dispar Iranian Journal of Public Health, 2010
Prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis using parasitological methods in Tehran Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2009
Comparison of a PCR-based method with culture and direct examination for diagnosis of Acanthamoeba keratitis Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 2009
Molecular characterization of the Iranian isolates of Giardia lamblia: Application of the glutamate dehydrogenase gene Iranian Journal of Public Health, 2008
