Background:Onychomycosis is one of the most common clinical forms of fungal infections due to both filamentous fungi and yeasts. The genus of Candida is one of the most prominent causes of onychomycosis in all around the world. Although Candida albicans is still the most frequent cause of nail infections, use of broad-spectrum antifungal agents has led to a shift in the etiology of C. albicans to non-albicans species. The aim of the present study is rapid and precise identification of candida species isolated from nail infection by using of PCR-RFLP technique.Materials and Methods:A total of 360 clinical yeast strains were collected from nail infections in Iran. Genomic DNA was extracted using FTA; cards. ITS1-5.8SrDNA-ITS2 region was amplified using universal primers and subsequently products were digested with the restriction enzyme MspI. For identification of newly described species (C. parapsilosis complex), the SADH gene was amplified, followed by digestion with Nla III restriction enzyme.Results:Candida albicans was the most commonly isolated species (41.1%), followed by C. parapsilosis (21.4%), C. tropicalis (12.8%), C. kefyr (9.4%), C. krusei (5.5%), C. orthopsilosis (4.1%), C. glabrata (2.8%), C. guilliermondii (1.4%), C. rugosa (0.8%), and C. lusitaniae (0.5%). Patients in the age groups of 51-60 and 81-90 years had the highest and lowest distribution of positive specimens, respectively.Conclusion:Rapid and precise identification of Candida species from clinical specimens lead to appropriate therapeutic plans.

Background: Hydatid cyst, which has anti-cancer activities, is outwardly covered with the cyst wall. It is in close contact with the host tissues and its molecules presented to the immune system. In this work immunological reaction of the sera of breast cancer patients with the hydatid cyst wall antigens has been investigated. Method: For this purpose, sera of patients with breast cancer, hydatid cyst and normal human sera were collected and their reaction with hydatid cyst wall antigens was tested using western immunoblotting technique. Results: All sera of patients with breast cancer, hydatid cyst and also human normal sera reacted with a band in western immunoblotting. However, sera of patients with breast cancer showed reaction with a 27 KDa band. Results of this work also revealed that this band was not glycosylated and may express only in some stages of breast cancer development. Conclusion: Sera of patients with breast cancer cross reacted with a nonglycosylated antigen of hydatid cyst wall. However, more work is recommended to find if this band involves in anticancer activity of the hydatid cyst.

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Background:Echinococcosis is a parasitic disease with worldwide distribution which is caused by the tapeworms Echinococcus granulosus. Diagnosis of the disease relies on imaging techniques, but the techniques are not able to differentiate the cyst from benign or malignant tumors; hence, appropriate serologic methods are required for the differential diagnosis of the infection.Materials and Methods:In this investigation, different sheep hydatid cyst antigens probed with thirty sera of patients with hydatid cyst and also thirty human normal sera using Western immunoblotting technique. Considering results of surgery as gold standard, sensitivity and specificity of Western blotting was estimated.Results:Sera of 29, 26, and 16 patients with hydatid cyst reacted with specific bands of hydatid cyst fluid (HCF), protoscolex crude antigen, and cyst wall crude antigen, respectively. However, none of the normal human sera reacted with those specific bands.Conclusion:A 20 kDa band of sheep HCF is an appropriate antigen for serodiagnosis of hydatid cyst infection.

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