This is the first identification of bla and bla in K. pneumoniae in Southwestern Iran and the highest reported prevalence of bla in this bacterium from Iran. Since carbapenem-resistant isolates containing New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) were almost resistant to all the tested antibiotics, the resistance due to this gene may be increased in the near future as a potential health threat.

Globally, high-risk illnesses including Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) are major health problems causing considerable impact on health systems. Knowledge and awareness are very important factors for controlling these illnesses in society. Regarding the transmission routes of these viruses, young people are at the highest risk of infection. Therefore, our objectives were to determine the college students’ awareness of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV/AIDS with regard to basic information, transmission, and prevention. A total of 810 students from 7 universities, from September to March 2017, were included in the study. All participants were categorized into three groups (medical, biology, and other fields). The subjects were evaluated by a standardized questionnaire and results analyzed in SPSS software using the χ2 test. In total, 43% of respondents were male and the majority of them were 20 to 25 years old. Our results showed the suitable level of awareness about HBV and remarkable about HIV. In contrast, insufficient level of awareness was indicated about HCV. Given the low levels of awareness or knowledge about HCV, it can be suggested that educational programs for this important disease are necessary especially for university students. On the other hand, high awareness of participants about HBV and HIV/AIDS might be the results of the proper functioning of educational programs for students in Iran.

This study aimed to investigate the clarithromycin resistance and its associated molecular mechanisms among Helicobacter pylori isolates from dyspeptic patients in Shiraz, Iran. From January to May 2014, 100 H. pylori strains were isolated from patients with gastroduodenal disorders. The resistance to clarithromycin was quantitatively evaluated, using Epsilometer (E-test) method. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was performed on all the isolates to detect A2143G and A2142G mutations in 23S rRNA gene. The H. pylori isolation rate was found to be 31.4%. E-test showed that 20% of isolates were resistant to clarithromycin (MIC ≥ 1 mg/L). MIC of clarithromycin ranged between 0.016 and 24 mg/L. Findings of PCR-RFLP showed that the A2142G was the most (90%) frequently point mutation, followed by the A2143G (10%). No statistically significant difference was found between H. pylori clarithromycin resistance point mutations and patients' gender or age. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of high frequency of A2142G point mutation in Iran and probably in other regions of the world. Considering the increasing trend of H. pylori resistance to clarithromycin due to these mutations, it is crucial to investigate the new therapeutic approaches against H. pylori infection.

Acellular vaccines containing bacterial immunodominant components such as surface proteins may be potent alternatives to live attenuated vaccines in order to reduce salmonellosis risk to human health. invH gene, an important part of needle complex in type three secretion system (TTSS) plays important role in efficient bacterial adherence and entry into epithelial cells. In this work we hypothesize that use of a 15 kDa recombinant InvH as Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis surface protein could provoke antibody production in mouse and would help us study feasibility of its potential for diagnosis and/or a recombinant vaccine. The purified InvH provoked significant rise of IgG in mice. Active protection induced by immunization with InvH against variable doses of S. enterica serovar Enteritidis, indicated that the immunized mice were completely protected against challenge with 10(4) LD(50). The immunoreaction of sera from immunized mice with other Salmonella strains or cross reaction with sera of Salmonella strains inoculated mice is indicative of possessing by Salmonella strains of the surface protein, InvH, that can be employed in both prophylactic and diagnostic measures against S. enterica. Bacteria free spleen and ileum of the immunized mice in this study indicate that the invH gene affects bacterial invasion. Efficacy of the virulence protein, InvH, in shuttling into host cells in injectisome of S. enterica serovar Enteritidis and inhibition of this phenomenon by active immunization was shown in this study. In conclusion immunization with InvH protein can develop protection against S. enterica serovar Enteritidis infections. InvH in Salmonella strains can be exploited in protective measures as well as a diagnostic tool in Salmonella infections.

Hemagglutinin (HA) is a major virulence factor of influenza viruses and plays an important role in viral pathogenesis. Analysis of amino acid changes, epitopes' regions, glycosylation and phosphorylation sites have greatly contributed to the development of new generations of vaccine. The hemagglutinins of 10 selected isolates, 8 of 2010 and 2 of 2013 samples were sequenced and analyzed by several bioinformatic softwares and the results were compared with those of 3 vaccine isolates. The study detected several amino acid changes related to altered epitopes' sites, modification sites and physico-chemical properties. The results showed some conserved modification sites in HA structure. This study is the first analytical research on isolates obtained from Shiraz, Iran, and our results can be used to better understand the genetic diversity and antigenic variations in Iranian and Asian H1N1 pathogenic strains.

Introduction: Human Herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) causes classical, endemic (African), and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)-related Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS), Body Cavity-Based Primary Effusion Lymphomas (BCBL), HHV-8-associated peritoneal Primary Effusion Lymphoma (PEL), and Multicentric Castleman’s Disease (MCD). HHV8 genome encodes several structural and non-structural proteins, among which vIL6 is a functional homologue of Interleukin-6 (IL-6). It has been established that vIL6 plays a vital role in HHV8 infections; also, it has been suggested that its function was mediated through gp130, rather than the gp80 (IL-6 receptor [IL-6R]). This study aimed to investigate the physicochemical and structural properties as well as the immunological features, and finally the interaction between vIL6 and IL6 receptor (IL6R) by using several bioinformatics tools which could provide both valuable insight into vIL6 protein and advantageous data for further studies on HHV8 inhibitors and new vaccines. Material and Methods: vIL6, human IL6 (hIL6), and IL6R were obtained from NCBI GenBank and Uniport, which were aligned by The CLC Genomics Workbench. "Signal-BLAST" and “predisi" were employed to define signal peptide; also, “Expasy’sProtParam” was used to predict physicochemical properties as well as "DiANNA", and "SCRATCH" predicted the disulfide bonds. “NetPhosK”, “DISPHOS”, “NetPhos”, ”NetNGlyc”, and ”GlycoEP” were involved to determine post-modification sites. To define immunoinformatics analysis, “BcePred”, “ABCpred”, “Bepipred”, “AlgPred”, and "VaxiJen" were used. “SOPMA”, “I-TASSER”, “GalaxyRefine”, and “3D-Refine” predicted and refined the secondary and tertiary structures. TM-align server was used to align 3D structures. In addition, docking analysis was done by “Hex 5.0.”, and finally the results were illustrated by “Discovery Studio”. Results: A signal peptide (1-22) was defined in the vIL6 sequences and analysis has shown that vIL6 is an acidic protein which is significantly stable in all organisms. Three Disulfide bonds were predicted and immunoinformatics analysis showed 5 distinct B-cell epitopes. vIL6 is predicted as a non-allergen protein and the majority of its structure consists of Alpha helix. TM-align pointed the significant similarity between vIL6 and hIL6 in protein folding. The high energy value between vIL6 protein and IL6R was calculated and further analysis illustrated 5 conserved regions as well as 4 conserved amino acids which had a significant role in vIL6 and IL6R interaction. Discussion: An in silico study by numerous software determined the possible interaction between vIL6 and IL6R and the possible role of this interaction in HHV8 pathogenesis and the progress of infection. These have been overlooked by previous studies and will be beneficial to gain a more comprehensive understanding of vIL6 function during HHV8 lifecycle and infections. Structural analysis showed the significant similarity between vIL6 and hIL6 folding which can describe the similarity of the functions or interactions of both proteins. Furthermore, several conserved regions in the interaction site which interestingly were highly conserved among all vIL6 sequences can be used as new target for vIL6 inhibitors. Moreover, our results could predict immunological properties of vIL6 which suggested the ability of this protein in induction of the humoral immune response. Such a protein may be used for further studies on therapeutic vaccine fields.

Objective To investigate hepatotoxicity in Iranian patients with HIV to assess the association between virologic response to HIV treatment and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Methods This study was conducted with 200 control patients, 75 patients with HIV naïve to antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 443 patients who received ARTs with virologic response (≤1000 copies/mL) or virologic treatment failure (>1000 copies/mL). Serum ALT level and HIV viral load were determined in all patients. Results Patient ALT levels were significantly higher than those of control patients (45.1 ± 44.4 IU/L vs 23.8 ± 5.4 IU/L). Compared to patients who were ART-naïve, patients with ART experience had significantly higher ALT levels (38.2 ± 26.2 IU/L vs 46.3 ± 46.7 IU/L), and severe hepatotoxicity was only detected in those with ART experience (8 patients, 1.8%). Mean ALT had no significant difference between virologic response/failure groups. The ALT activity and HIV load had a negative correlation coefficient, but it was not significant. Conclusion Periodic monitoring for the possibility of hepatotoxicity is highly recommended in all patients with HIV, especially in those receiving ART treatment.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a serious global health problem and a cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Bioinformatics software has been an effective tool to study the HCV genome as well as core domains. Our research was based on employing several bioinformatics software applications to find important mutations in domain 1 of core protein in Iranian HCV infected samples from 2006 to 2017, and an investigation of general properties, B-cell and T-cell epitopes, modification sites, and structure of domain 1. Domain 1 sequences of 188 HCV samples isolated from 2006 to 2017, Iran, were retrieved from NCBI gene bank. Using several tools, all sequences were analyzed for determination of mutations, physicochemical analysis, B-cell epitopes prediction, T-cell and CTL epitopes prediction, post modification, secondary and tertiary structure prediction. Our analysis determined several mutations in some special positions (70, 90, 91, and 110) that are associated with HCC and hepatocarcinogenesis, efficacy of triple therapy and sustained virological response, and interaction between core and CCR6. Several B-cell, T-cell, and CTL epitopes were recognized. Secondary and tertiary structures were mapped fordomain1 and core proteins. Our study, as a first report, offered inclusive data about frequent mutation in HCV-core gene domain 1 in Iranian sequences that can provide helpful analysis on structure and function of domain 1 of the core gene.