Background:The pathogenic association of Transfusion Transmitted Virus or Torque teno Virus (TT Virus) single and mixed infections with leukemia was under evaluation in these years but confront with controversies. This hypothesis is based on the higher prevalence of TT Virus infection in patients with leukemia compared with controls.Objectives:The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of TT Virus, Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infections in patients with leukemia and healthy controls.Patients and Methods:In this cross sectional study, 95 patients with leukemia and 100 healthy controls who were admitted to the Namazi Hospital affiliated to the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, were enrolled between years 2012 and 2013. Blood samples treated with EDTA were collected from each patient with leukemia and controls. The existence of TT Virus infection was analyzed using the semi-nested PCR method. The immunological prevalence of HBV and HCV infections were evaluated using HBs-Ag and HCV-Ab ELISA based protocols, respectively. Active CMV infection was also evaluated using an immunofluorescence method. Also risk factors of leukemia and viral infections were statistically analyzed in patients with leukemia.Results:The TT Virus infection was significantly found in 40 of 95 (42.1%) and 12 of 100 (12%) patients with leukemia and controls, respectively. The HBs-Ag and HCV-Ab were detected in 27 of 95 (28.4%) and 18 of 69 (26.1%) patients with leukemia but were not found in the controls. Active CMV infection was also found in 11 of 69 (16%) patients and none of the controls. Significant co-infection of TT Virus was found with HBV (15 of 40; 37.5%), HCV (14 of 40; 35%) and CMV (7 of 40; 17.5%) in patients with leukemia.Conclusions:Confirmation of the significantly higher frequency of TT Virus, HBV, HCV and CMV single infection and their co-infection in patients with leukemia compared with healthy controls, emphasizes the determinative role of TT Virus pathogenesis in clinical outcomes observed in patients with leukemia, which requires extensive evaluation by further studies.

Cag Pathogenicity Island (cag-PAI)-containing Helicobacter pylori strains induces signal transduction pathways resulting in tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins adjacent to the site of bacterial adhesion on host gastric epithelial cells. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were designed to test the presence of three nucleotide sequences corresponding to tyrosine phosphorylation motifs (TPMs) A, B, and C in H. pylori isolates from gastroduodenal patients in Iran. This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on 164 antral gastric biopsy specimens which were obtained from patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy. Initially, H. pylori strains were identified by rapid urease test (RUT) and ureC gene and then analyzed for the presence of cagA gene and TPM subtypes (A, B and C) by PCR with established specific primers. Statistical analyses were performed to find their association with gastroduodenal diseases. The PCR assays demonstrated that motif A was common (13.24% of the isolates), whereas motifs B and C were found in 6.62 and 5.30% of the isolates respectively. TPM-AB, TPM-BC and TPM-AC were found in 21.19, 10.60 and 3.97% of the isolates respectively. 16.56% of the isolates had all kinds of TPMs. Strains lacking a TPM were found in 22.52% of the isolates. The presence of TPM-C alone or in combination with other motifs has a direct diagnostic value but the higher proportion of these strains in gastric ulcer patients merits further investigation.