The current study revealed a high prevalence of intestinal parasites and related clinical symptoms in ESRD patients undergoing hemodialysis. Since hemodialysis patients are immunocompromised and intestinal parasites can cause serious clinical complications, we suggest that stool examination for intestinal parasites, with an emphasis on detection of Cryptosporidium spp. and Blastocystis, should be incorporated into the routine clinical care for these patients. Measures for preventing the acquisition of IPIs are also recommended.

Background:One of the most important ways of pathologic and non-pathologic parasites transmission is through eating raw vegetables. Iranian people believe that eating raw vegetables is an important way to get some essential vitamins and minerals. Objectives: According to the high prevalence of pathologic parasites and also exporting different vegetables to the other provinces such as Tehran, we conducted this study to evaluate the parasitic pollution of raw vegetables in Amol city. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive and analytic study compromised of 200 samples from 10 different vegetables including spinach, garden cress, parsley, lettuce, peppermint, radish, green onion, basil, coriander and scallion. The samples were evaluated using timely-sediment method and then centrifuging concentrating. The obtained results were analyzed by SPSS software and χ 2/Fisher's Exact Test. Results: Results showed that 93 (46.5%) of all vegetables (collected from 20 regions) were contaminated with pathologic and nonpathologic parasites. Among these, spinach and coriander were the highest (17.2%) and the lowest (3.2%) contaminated samples, respectively. The isolated parasites were nematode larva 25.8%, Giardia cyst 22.5%, Entamoeba coli cyst 19.3%. However, the obtained results from 100 restaurants and kebab samples did not show any parasitic contamination. Conclusions: Given hygiene issues and health status of people, the prevalence of some parasitic contaminations is the biggest problems among vegetable consumers. Using organized and new methods for irrigating the agricultural fields, preventing animals to enter the vegetable's farmlands and also improving people's knowledge on proper washing of vegetables can be useful in decreasing parasites prevalence.

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Due to side-effects and inefficiency of the drugs used in malaria treatment, finding alternative medicine with less side-effects has attracted much attention. In this regard, in the present study, nanocomposite synthesized and its effects on the metabolites of P. falciparum were investigated. Subsequent to synthesis of nanocomposites, characterization was carried out using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering and Fourier-transform infrared tests. Solubility and drug release were measured and its toxicity on Vero cell was assessed using the MTT assay. The antiparasitic effect of the nanocomposite on the metabolites of P. falciparum was investigated by 1H NMR spectroscopy. Among synthesized nanocomposites, the average size of 239 nm showed suitable solubility in water as well as slow drug release. The MTT assay showed no toxicity for Vero cell lines. Concentrations of 2.5 μg mL−1 of nanocomposite eliminated 82.6% of the total parasites. The most effected metabolic cycles were glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism. In this study, 1H NMR spectroscopy was used with untargeted metabolomics to study the effect of the nanocomposite on P. falciparum. Playing an essential role in understanding drug-target interactions and characterization of mechanism of action or resistance exhibited by novel antiprotozoal drugs, can be achieved by targeting metabolic using LC-MS.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of some medicinal plants and systemic glucantime in a comparative manner against the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis both in vitro and in BALB/c mice. Methods: For in vivo testing, inbred mice were challenged with Leishmania major parasites and the resultant ulcers were treated with extract based-ointments applied topically two times per day for a period of 20 days. A group of 56 mice were randomly divided into 7 subgroups. The control group received the ointment void of extracts, whereas the reference group received glucantime only. The efficacy of treatments was evaluated by measuring ulcer diameter, parasite burden and NO production. Results: Our results indicated that plant extract based-ointments were effective in reducing ulcer size and parasite burden in spleens, but their effects did not differ significantly from that of glucantime. The plant extracts tested in this study were able to increase NO production that helped parasite suppression. Conclusions:Our findings indicate that the tested plant extracts are effective against Leishmania major both during in vitro and in vivo experiments, but further researches are required to recommend a potential plant extract as an alternative drug.