Novelty in Biomedicine

Background: Hepatitis A is a common infection during childhood, especially in developing countries. It can cause severe complications in immunocompromised patients. Due to the increasing number of kidney transplants in the country and epidemiologic shift of HAV which was observed in previous studies, we're going to evaluate the seroprevalence of hepatitis A in hemodialysis patients less than forty years serving kidney transplant candidates to follow vaccination policy for them.

Materials and Methods: In a cross sectional study during 2014-2015 hepatitis A antibody levels in hemodialysis patients less than forty years in kidney transplant candidates examined in 12 hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Their serums were tested for anti HAV IgM and IgG by ELISA kits.

Results: Hepatitis A virus antibody was positive in 66 (72.5%) of 91 patients. The prevalence of HAV was 0% at the range of younger than 20 and 45% in under 25 years age group. This significantly increased prevalence by increasing the age, and there was according to epidemiological shifts which were shown in other studies.

Conclusion: Due to the availability of vaccine and hepatitis severe complications in immunocompromised individuals, as well as a low prevalence of positive serology in individuals under 25 years, it seems the check of antibodies in patients undergoing kidney transplantation and vaccination in seronegative persons is a logical.

Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or kala-azar is a parasitic disease caused by the species of Leishmania donovani complex. Mediterranean type of the disease is endemic in some parts of Iran and more than 95% of cases were reported in children up to 12 years of age. This study was performed to determine the seroprevalence of VL in the rural areas of the Dashti district from Bushehr province.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a randomized cluster sampling method was used for the collection of blood samples from children up to 12 years old from rural areas of Dashti district. Before sampling; a questionnaire was filled out for each case. All the collected blood samples were examined after the serum separating by Direct Agglutination Test (DAT) for detection of anti-Leishmania infantum antibodies. The cutoff titers of ≥1: 3200 with specific clinical features were supposed to be considered as VL.

Results: Altogether, 24 out of 1221 (1.96%) blood samples showed titers between 1:800 and 1:1600 which considered as suspicious cases. None of the suspicious cases had a history of kala-azar. None of 1221 collected blood samples showed anti Leishmania infantum (L. infantum) at titer ≥1:3200.

Conclusion: This study confirms the circulation of L. infantum in Dashti district and highlights the sporadic pattern of VL in the studied areas which necessitates the surveillance system to be monitored by health authorities.

Background: Iron deficiency is often observed in obese individuals. The prevalence of obesity has increased at an epidemic rate. A few small studies have noted a possible association between iron deficiency and obesity. The purpose of the study has been determined relationship between anthropometric including body mass index and the size of abdomen and iron-shortage anemia.

Materials and Methods: Descriptive, analytical, and cross sectional methods of research have been applied in the study. The instruments used to collect the data were a set of organized items in the questionnaire and a checklist contained the measurement of abdominal obesity, height, weight, BMI, the results of ferritin levels, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and TIBC and MCV. The tools were validated via content validity and test-retest. The participants were the staff (n=300) of Hamadan branch, Islamic Azad university, Iran, who were selected via census sampling technique. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, that is, chi-square, Pearson correlation coefficient, and ANOVA were run using SPSS software.

Results: 48.4% had overweight and 43.9% had various degrees of general obesity. 45.7% of women and 1.9% of men suffered from abdominal obesity. 3.2% of men had ferritin levels less than 20ng/dl and 79.2% of them had high levels of TIBC, while 31.5% of women had ferritin serum less than 12ng per dl and 73.9% of them had high TIBC. There was a significant relationship between abdominal obesity and TIBC, HB, HCT, and ferritin serum (p<0.0005).

Conclusion: The results of this study indicate the high prevalence of overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity and their relationship with iron deficiency anemia. These are non-communicable disease, which are directly related to the lifestyle.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) still continues to infect many people worldwide despite the availability of an effective vaccine for more than three decades. The high prevalence of HBV may exist in high risk groups, particularly among intravenous drug users (IDUs). This group is among groups with a higher risk of infection due to their hazardous behaviors such as sharing needles for drug injection. This cross sectional study included 229 intravenous drug users in Tehran, in 2013 to investigate the prevalence of HBc Ab positivity and its associated risk factors among IDUs.

Materials and Methods: Socio-demographic characteristics and associated risk factors were recorded during sample collection. Their serum samples were tested for the presence of total hepatitis B virus core antibody (HBc Ab) by Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).

Results: HBc Ab was detected in 64 of 229 participants, giving an overall prevalence of 28%. History of imprisonment, injecting drugs and age has a significant correlation with HBc Ab positivity.

Conclusion: Expansion of new preventive strategies through the national health system could be beneficial for decreasing the risk of acquiring HBV among high risk groups such as IDUs.

Materials and Methods: . Recombinant mutated streptokinase was purified and its lipopolysaccharide  contained  remove and evaluated by LAL test. Thrombolytic activity of drug was evaluated by rabbit jugular vein as in vivo thrombosis model. The thrombolytic property of the drug was evaluated with determining of D-dimer in plasma.

Results:. The results showed in vivo bioactivity of both truncated and commercial streptokinase (p<0.05). This study showed an important influence of the 42 amino acids of C-terminal in bioactivity of the streptokinase.

Conclusion: Clinical use of the r-streptokinase requires more modification to restore its’ activity in vivo. This product may be a promising choice for clinical use after confirmation of its stability and non-immunogenicity.

Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), caused by Leishmania infantum (L. infantum), is a life-threatening vector-borne parasitic disease is distributed in some parts of the world. The disease is endemic in some parts of Iran. This study was aimed to determine the seroprevalence of VL among children and domestic dogs (as a reservoir of the parasite) in Dehloran, west of Iran.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Dehloran County. The blood samples of 872 children up to 12 years old and 52 dogs were collected from 10 villages of Dehloran using randomly-clustered sampling method. Sera were separated from all peripheral blood samples and tested by direct agglutination test (DAT). Anti-Leishmania infantum antibodies at titers of ≥1:800 and ≥1:80 were considered as Leishmania infantum infection in human and dog, respectively.

Results: In general, among 872 human samples, 1.03% of samples had anti-Leishmania antibody with 1:1600 titers and 1.26% had 1:800 titers. In addition, from 52 dog samples, 21.15% of dogs had a titer of ≥1:320 and 25% had 1:80 and 1:160 titers.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the seropositive dogs in the studied areas are considerable and L. infantum may be circulated between human and domestic dog in the studied area. Further study of isolation and molecular identification of Leishmania spp. is recommended.

Background: Free-living amoebae have various genera that are found in several environmental niches such as soil, freshwater, dust, seawater and hotsprings. Most of Free-living amoebae are normally harmless to humans. However, some ameoba such as Acanthamoeba and also Naegleria fowleri, Balamuthia manderillaris and Sappinia are identified as opportunistic and pathogenic amoebae that can cause eye diseases, encephalitis, and meningoencephalitis in human. Vannellidae are a family of free-living amoebae and exist mainly in soil, freshwater, and marine habitats. This amoeba is nonpathogenic for human, but can act as a Trojan horse for other pathogens such as Microsporidia. The present study reports the occurrence of Vannella spp. in a hotspring of Amol city.

Materials and Methods: 22 samples were taken from hotsprings of Mazandaran province during our previous study. The plates were checked for the presence of Vannella spp. according to the specific morphological criteria. DNA extraction, PCR and sequencing was performed on the positive isolate.

Results: The result showed that one plate contained fan-shaped amoebae suspected to Vannella spp. PCR analysis and sequencing was confirmed the occurrence of Vannella spp. in one sample of a hot spring of Amol, northern Iran.

Conclusion: The result confirmed the presence of Vannella amoebae in the hotspring of Amol city. More studies are needed to clarify the real distribution of Vannella spp. in environmental niches and its pathogenic potential in Iran and worldwide.