The level of arginase activity in lesions of patients with acute and chronic CL was higher than the skin of healthy controls. The highest level of arginase activity was observed in PMNs from patients with chronic CL. This suggests that the high level of arginase activity in PMNs of patients with chronic CL may contribute to the chronicity.

BackgroundThe vector-borne disease leishmaniasis is transmitted to humans by infected female sand flies, which transmits Leishmania parasites together with saliva during blood feeding. In Iran, cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is caused by Leishmania (L.) major and L. tropica, and their main vectors are Phlebotomus (Ph.) papatasi and Ph. sergenti, respectively. Previous studies have demonstrated that mice immunized with the salivary gland homogenate (SGH) of Ph. papatasi or subjected to bites from uninfected sand flies are protected against L. major infection.Methods and resultsIn this work we tested the immune response in BALB/c mice to 14 different plasmids coding for the most abundant salivary proteins of Ph. sergenti. The plasmid coding for the salivary protein PsSP9 induced a DTH response in the presence of a significant increase of IFN-γ expression in draining lymph nodes (dLN) as compared to control plasmid and no detectable PsSP9 antibody response. Animals immunized with whole Ph. sergenti SGH developed only a saliva-specific antibody response and no DTH response. Mice immunized with whole Ph. sergenti saliva and challenged intradermally with L. tropica plus Ph. sergenti SGH in their ears, exhibited no protective effect. In contrast, PsSP9-immunized mice showed protection against L. tropica infection resulting in a reduction in nodule size, disease burden and parasite burden compared to controls. Two months post infection, protection was associated with a significant increase in the ratio of IFN-γ to IL-5 expression in the dLN compared to controls.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that while immunity to the whole Ph. sergenti saliva does not induce a protective response against cutaneous leishmaniasis in BALB/c mice, PsSP9, a member of the PpSP15 family of Ph. sergenti salivary proteins, provides protection against L. tropica infection. These results suggest that this family of proteins in Ph. sergenti, Ph. duboscqi and Ph. papatasi may have similar immunogenic and protective properties against different Leishmania species. Indeed, this anti-saliva immunity may act as an adjuvant to accelerate the cell-mediated immune response to co-administered Leishmania antigens, or even cause the activation of infected macrophages to remove parasites more efficiently. These findings highlight the idea of applying arthropod saliva components in vaccination approaches for diseases caused by vector-borne pathogens.

It appears that reduced mRNA expression of FoxP3 and circulating level of IL-35 are of significance in the context of CAD pathogenesis. However, more studies are required to elucidate underlying mechanisms.

Objective Most patients infected with the novel coronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2), as the causative agent of COVID‐19 disease, show mild symptoms, but some of them develop severe illness. The purpose of this study was to analyze the blood markers of COVID‐19 patients and to investigate the correlation between serum inflammatory cytokines and the disease severity. Methods In this prospective cross‐sectional study, 50 patients with COVID‐19 and 20 patients without COVID‐19 were enrolled. According to ICU admission criteria, patients were divided into two groups of non‐severe and severe. Differences in the serum levels of C‐reactive protein (CRP), IL‐6, and TNF‐α, as well as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), lymphocytes (LYM) count, and neutrophils (NEU) count between the two groups were determined and analyzed. Results Out of the 50 patients with COVID‐19, 14 were diagnosed as severe cases. There was no significant difference between the two groups of COVID‐19 patients in terms of gender and age. Blood tests of COVID‐19 patients showed a significant decrease and increase in NEU and LYM counts, respectively. There were significant differences in the serum levels of IL‐6, TNF‐α, and CRP between the severe and non‐severe groups, which were higher in the severe group. Also, there was a significant correlation between the disease severity and CRP with ESR (r = 0.79), CRP with IL‐6 (r = 0.74), LYM with NEU (r = −0.97), and ESR with TNF‐α (r = 0.7). Conclusion The findings of this study, as the first study in Iran, suggest that the levels of IL‐6, TNF‐α, ESR, and CRP could be used to predict the severity of COVID‐19 disease.

Background: HRV is the causative agent of severe gastroenteritis in children and responsible for two million hospitalizations and more than a half-million deaths annually. Sequence characteristics of the gene segments encoding the VP7 and VP4 proteins are used for the genotype classification of rotavirus. A wide variety of molecular methods are available, mainly based on reverse transcription PCR for rapid, specific and sensitive genotyping of rotaviruses. This study describes an alternative real-time PCR assay for genotyping of rotavirus. Methods: The samples of stools studied in this research have been collected from patients referred to Children's Medical Centers, Tehran, Iran. Rotavirus detection and genotyping were performed using the RT-PCR and seminested RT-PCR, respectively. Samples were then genotyped with a new real-time PCR. Results: The real-time PCR was able to genotype all positive samples with a mean C t of 28.2. Besides, a concordance rate of 100% was detected between real-time PCR and semi-nested RT-PCR. Conclusion: In this study, the genotyping of rotavirus with real-time PCR showed that this method can provide several favorable features, including high sensitivity and specificity, and a wide dynamic range for rotavirus genotyping.