Background: Candidiasis is a spectrum of opportunistic fungal diseases that can manifest in drug addicts in various forms, such as stomatitis. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of oral candidiasis caused by Candida glabrata in addicts and examine the susceptibility of isolates to two azoles. Patients and Methods: After taking oral samples from 131 drug addicts suspected of having oral candidiasis, Candida species were identified by culture on chromogenic Candida agar, carbohydrate-assimilation (API test), and polymerase chain reaction. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of fluconazole and voriconazole against the isolates were determined using the broth microdilution method. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 23) using the t-test and one-way analysis of variance. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Overall, 22.2% of the isolates were C. glabrata, which was more abundant among opiate addicts. Among these isolates, 61.1% were resistant to fluconazole and 44.4% were resistant to voriconazole. The MIC90 of voriconazole was 8 µg/mL, which was 16 times less than that of fluconazole (128 µg/mL). There was no statistically significant difference between the frequency of fluconazole-and voriconazole-resistant isolates (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Oral candidiasis was a common problem among drug addicts. In addition, the prevalence of azole-resistant C. glabrata isolates was high among these individuals.

Background: Mycoplasma can be isolated with considerable frequency from the female urogenital tracts. Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis are important genital mycoplasmas and known as sexually transmitted agents, causing mainly urethritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, spontaneous abortion, pyelonephritis, infertility, stillbirth, low birth weight, neonatal meningititis, and neonatal pneumonia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of Mycoplasma infections in women of reproductive age.Methods: Vaginal and cervical specimens were collected from 130 women, aged between 20 and 50 years, who referred to our laboratory during a 12-month period. Every woman was tested for the presence of Mycoplasma with culture method. Endocervical and vaginal swab samples were taken from patient, and transported with mycoplasma transport media then filtered and cultured on H&U agar. Isolates tested for Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis with urea and arginin hydrolysis respectively.Results: Of the 130 patients studied, 29(22.33%) were positive for U.urealyticum and 37(28.4%) were positive for M. hominis. 25(18.4%) of patients presented both organisms or both genital mycoplasmas.The highest prevalence of both organisms was seen in the married women in 21-30 age group.Conclusions: In our study there is a expected prevalence of genital Mycoplasma. Because of the potential adverse effects of mycoplasmas on the success rate of highly specialized infertility treatment, and its causal roles in several maternal complications of pregnancy and in neonatal morbidity and mortality, the detection of mycoplasmas in women could be important and necessary.

Background and objectives: Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are major nanomaterials with a variety of applications. The synthesis of nanoparticles by conventional methods is challenging and often requires use of hazardous chemicals. Therefore, there is a growing need for development of environmentally and economically friendly processes for the synthesis of nanoparticles. This study aimed at biosynthesis of AgNPs using a filamentous fungus; Fusarium solani. Methods: Twenty-four Fusarium isolates were found from several soil samples collected from depth of 1-10 cm. All isolates were identified as F. solani based on morphological characteristics. The synthesis of nanoparticles were evaluated after 24, 48, 72 hours of culture. AgNPs were characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Results: The synthesized AgNps showed maximum absorbance peak at 420 nm after 72 hours. Moreover, most AgNps were spherical with diameter of between 20 and 40 nm. Conclusion: In this study, we introduced a simple biological process for biosynthesis of AgNPs using F. solani isolates from soil samples. The results indicate that fungi may be suitable for safe and cost-effective production of AgNPs.

Introduction: Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a ubiquitous organism that can infect multiple organs but rarely causes gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. However, it can be reactivated in the GI tract and lead to gastric cancer. Here, we investigated CMV infection in patients with gastric complaints. Material and methods: In this study, 99 biopsy samples were collected from patients with GI symptoms and CMV genome was detected by polymerase chain reaction. Sequencing was performed for computational genotyping. Results: We observed that 88.99% of the samples were urease positive and 5.99% of the samples were CMV positive. Moreover, genotype of the samples belonged to group 4 (gB4). There was a relatively high incidence of CMV infection in patients with GI problems. Conclusions: Although symptomatic CMVassociated diseases of the GI tract are rare in immunocompetent individuals, they might be considered as potential complications of CMV infection.

Background: Infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) is highly frequent during pregnancy in human beings, which mostly results in preterm birth. Objectives: The current study aimed at comparing serological and molecular methods to determine the frequency of CMV infection in pregnant women admitted to hospitals in Golestan Province, Northern Iran. Methods: The study was conducted on 315 blood samples collected from pregnant women. After completion of the screening test questionnaire, CMV-IgG, CMV-IgM, and CMV-IgG avidity tests were performed to determine the seropositivity prevalence of CMV. Finally, after DNA extraction, the PCR technique was employed to detect the CMV genome in the samples. Results: Out of the studied women, 81.2% were positive for CMV-IgG and CMV-IgM, but only 8.2% had positive results in the molecular detection of CMV, out of which 61.9% had a history of abortion. In terms of the correlation between ethnicity and infection with CMV, 66.7% of positive samples belonged to Fars ethnic group. The relationship between ethnicity and occupational status in terms of CMV infection revealed that 85% of Fars and 29% of Turkmen housewives were positive for CMV. In terms of the relationship between ethnicity and age, 35% of pregnant women from Fars and 42% from Turkmen ethnic groups were over 30 years. Furthermore, the results showed that 71% of Fars and 42% of Turkmen pregnant women were infected with CMV during the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. Among all these variables, a significant relationship was observed only between the age of pregnant women and infection with CMV (P = 0.045). Conclusions: The current study results showed that despite the increasing frequency of CMV infection in pregnant women, seropositivity, and even higher titers of CMV-IgG have no predictive value for active CMV infection. Concerning the importance of rapid and definitive diagnosis of the disease before the emergence of manifestations, molecular techniques could be of great help as they are effective in the diagnosis of infection with smaller amounts of the pathogenic genome.