Background:Prescribing antidepressant drugs is becoming common. These drugs are known to affect sexual functions.Objective:The study is aimed to assess the effects of amitriptyline and venlafaxine on sperm parameters and evaluate Malondialdehyde (MDA) and 1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl values in BALB/ mice spermatozoa.Materials and Methods:Forty adult male BALB/c mice were separated into five groups. Group Ι (control) received distilled water; group ΙΙ amitriptyline (4 mg/kg); group ΙΙΙ amitriptyline (4 mg/kg) +vitamin C (10 mg/kg); group ΙV venlafaxine (2 mg/kg); and group V received vitamin C (10 mg/kg) + venlafaxine (2 mg/kg). All drugs were administered by oral gavage for 35 days. After excision of caudal epididymis, it was located in 1 mL Ham's F10 medium at 37oC for 15 min and then analysis of sperm parameters was performed. To examine lipid peroxidation and total antioxidant capacity, the MDA and 1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl were measured, respectively.Results: The mean sperm parameters in the group treated with amitriptyline were significantly lower than in the other groups. MDA tests showed a significant difference between amitriptyline and control groups (p=0.007).Conclusion: The results of this study showed that amitriptyline consumption can weaken sperm parameters, which can be attributed to the increased production of ROS and toxicity resulting from amitriptyline consumption. Moreover, venlafaxine improved sperm parameters in mice and the lipid peroxidation in this group did not change compared to the control group.

Background and Objectives: Due to the important role of Streptococcus agalactiae, Group B streptococci (GBS), in production of invasive disease in neonates, investigation regarding the pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance factors is necessary in selecting the appropriate therapeutic agents. Beside capsule, the pilus has been currently recognized as an important factor in enhancing the pathogenicity of GBS. Resistance of GBS to selected antibiotics is noticeably increasing which is mainly due to the anomalous use of these drugs for treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of pili genes followed by antibiotic susceptibility of GBS, previously serotyped, isolated from pregnant women in the city of Yazd, Iran. Materials and Methods: Fifty seven GBS from pregnant women were subjected to multiplex PCR for determination of PI-1, PI-2a and PI-2b pilus-islands and simultaneously, the phenotype of antibiotic resistance to penicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin, clindamycin, gentamycin and levofloxacin was determined. Antibiotic resistance genes (ermA, ermB, mefA, tetM, int-Tn) were further diagnosed using PCR and multiplex PCR. Results: PI-1+PI-2a with 71.9%; followed by PI-2a (21.1%) and PI-2b (7%) were observed. PI-1+PI-2a in serotype III was (73.2%), serotype II, Ia, Ib and V were 12.2%, 9.8%, 2.4% and 2.4% respectively. GBS penicillin sensitive was 89.5% and 96.5% resistance to tetracycline. The frequency of resistance genes were as follows: tetM (93%), ermA (33.3%), ermB (8.8%), int-Tn (80.7%) and mefA (0). Conclusion: Majority of GBS contained PI-1+PI-2a. Hence presence of this pilus stabilizes the colonization, therefore designing a program for diagnosing and treatment of infected pregnant women seems to be necessary.

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Objective: Leishmaniasis is caused by different Leishmania spp. Treatment failure (TF) of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a serious issue that may be due to various reasons, previous studies suggested Leishmania RNA virus (LRV) as a potential cause of TF. Two variant groups of LRV1 and LRV2 are reported. In this study, the presence of LRV1/LRV2 was compared in TF with treatment response (TR) isolates of L. major. Clinical isolates of 15 TF and 15 TR were collected from CL patients referred to the Health Centers of Isfahan. Genomic DNA was extracted to identify Leishmania spp. using ITS1-PCR-RFLP. Identification of LRV1/LRV2 was performed using SYBR Green Real-Time PCR. The statistical analysis to test relationship between the treatment response with Glucantime and the presence of LRV were performed using SPSS 16.0 with Fisher's Exact test. P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.Results: ITS1-PCR-RFLP results showed that every isolate was identified as L. major. The results showed no LRV1 in any of the samples but 7 TR isolates and 2 TF isolates showed positive for LRV2. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between the presence of LRV2 and response to Glucantime (p-value = 0.1086). Therefore, other mechanisms might be responsible for TF.

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