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Purpose: Evaluation of humoral and cellular immune responses of naturally infected dogs against type I (rCPB) (Recombinant cycsteine proteinase B), and II (rCPA) (Recombinant cycsteine proteinase A) recombinant cysteine proteinases and C-terminal extension (CTE) of Leishmania infantum (L. infantum). Materials and Methods: In this study, fourteen infected dogs (7 with symptoms, 7 asymptomatics) from an endemic area and three uninfected dogs from a nonendemic region were selected and their humoral and cellular responses against type I and II recombinant cysteine proteinases, C-terminal extension (CTE) and F/T of Leishmania infantum were evaluated using the ELISA and lymphocyte proliferation assay, respectively. The level of specific IgG isotypes (IgG1 and IgG2) and lymphocyte proliferative response against rCPA, rCPB, CTE and Freezed/Thawed lysate (F/T) of L. infantum were examined. Results and Discussion: The results showed that in both of the symptomatic and asymptomatic dogs there is a high lymphoproliferative response to F/T antigens and moderate responses were observed when rCPs (Recombinant cycsteine proteinase) (rCPA and rCPB) and CTE were used. The level of antibody (total IgG, IgG1 and IgG2) recognition toward rCPA was low in the both groups of the dogs. In contrast, the CTE stimulates similarly as the CPB both of the humoral and cellular responses of all the infected animals and the level of total IgG and IgG2 isotypes against these antigens compared to the IgG1 was higher in the asymptomatic dogs. Since, the CTE is the terminal fragment of the CPB, it seems that the immunogenicity of the CPB is dependent on the CTE. Conclusion: The results of our investigation indicates that the CPB and CTE stimulate both humoral and cellular immune responses of L. infantum infected dogs, wherase the CPA is a weaker immunogen.

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Objective: An entomological survey was carried out for Leishmania vector incrimination of sand flies in northwestern Iran. Materials and Methods: Among other specimens, 358 sand flies belong to the Sergentomyia Genus were tested for leptomonad infection using semi-nested PCR method as well as sequence anlalysis of ITS-rDNA fragment. Results: Results of semi-nested PCR against kietoplast DNA showed reptile leptomonad infection in two specimens of S.dentata. The ITS2 sequence analysis of the specimens revealed 76% identity with those of Leishmania (sauroleishmania) adleri of Genbank. However, further studies need to clarify the species identity of the leptomonads. Interestingly, blood meal analysis of the sand flies determined an S.sintoni specimen with mammalian hemoglobin. Conclusion: This reptile related sauroleishmania parasites lacks the Lipophosphoglican (LPG) necessary for entrance to human phagocytes cells, and hence are not human pathogen. However, the GlycoInositoPhosphoLipid (GIPL) molecules of this parasite reacts with sera of kala-azar patients and may cause false positive scores in sero-epidemiological surveys for kala-azar. Sauroleishmania can be transmitted to human by infected bite of some Sergentomyia subgenera that show intermediate

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Objective: Ajowan is an annual herbaceous essential oil of Carum copticom. The main components of the oil are Tymol, β-pinene, γ- terpinene and Sabinene.The fruit oil of Carum copticum has been reported to have several therapeutic effects including anti fungal, anti bacterial and anti viral,... Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungus and transforms into pathogenic form in favorable conditions, causing fungal diseases. Materials and Methods: In this study, essential oil and alcoholic extract of Carum copticum were gained and Microdilution Broth method were used for detection of minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicide concentration (MFC) of 11 clinical isolates of Candida albicans and Standard strain (PTCC50-27). Results: Results show that MIC for essential oil is 0.43 µg/ml, 0.87 µg/ml and for alcoholic extract is 3.51 µg/ml, 7.03 µg/ml, 1/75 µg/ml. Thus, it seems that Carum copticum could inhibit Candida albicans growth by a similar mechanism which occurs by Fluconazole (FLZ). In general, the results obtained in this study indicate that Carum copticum has potential values for growth inhibition of Candida albicans in vitro. Conclution: In recent years, systemic fungal infections due to Candida species have been received major consideration about inducing mortality in nosocomial patients because of increasing in immunocompromised disorders such as AIDS and hematological disorders as well as long term use of Phlebotomus perfiliewi transcaucasicus sandflies. Conclusion: This is the first report on natural infection of sand flies to L. donovani in the country and since the ecology and biology of L. donovani differs extensively from L. infantum, it is necessary to perform further studies to highlight the role of L. donovani in epidemiology of VL in the region and country.

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The combustion of fossil fuels containing sulfur results in the release of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere and environmental pollution. Hence, the researchers focused on the biological desulfurization method. Dibenzothiophene is used as the model molecule to study the ability of the desulfurization of microorganisms. The most suitable sources of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur concentration optimized by response surface method to obtain the highest cell growth and biological desulfurization activity. The performance of iron nanoparticles on the growth and biodesulfurization activity of thermophilic bacterium Bacillus thermoamylovorans strain EAMYO was investigated. Characterization of starch-modified iron nanoparticles was performed by TEM, SEM. The images of TEM and SEM of starch / Iron nanoparticles showed that the Fe₃O₄ and Fe0 nanoparticles were 20 and 30 nm, respectively. The investigating the growth of microorganism in the presence of iron nanoparticles showed that these nanoparticles not only did not have a toxic effect on microorganism growth, but also increased the growth of microorganism in 96 h (OD 660 = 1.864, 1.896 respectively in the presence of nanoparticles Fe₀ and Fe₃O₄), while the highest rate of growth in the absence of nanoparticles in 96 h (OD660 = 1.51). Also, the activity of desulfurization in the presence of starch/Fe₀ nanoparticles and starch/Fe₃O₄ / starch increased by 26.52% and 10.75%, respectively, compared to the cells without the coating of iron nanoparticles.