Visceral Leishmaniasis or Kala Azar is endemic in certain regions of India. In endemic areas, the constellation of fever, progressive weight loss, weakness, pronounced splenomegaly, anemia, leukopenia, and hypergammaglobulinemia is highly suggestive of visceral leishmaniasis. Demonstration of the parasite in liver, splenic or bone marrow aspirates is confirmatory. We present a case in which Leishmania donovani (LD) bodies were demonstrated on splenic aspirate. We were unable to demonstrate LD bodies on bone marrow aspiration.

Diagnosis of some diseases is difficult due to invasive sampling. Urine has been candidate as a non-invasive and convenient alternative. It has many advantages and easy accessibility but some technical ills should be removed. Finding a suitable extraction method for improving urine DNA quantity and quality in altering invasive specimens for molecular diagnosis of some infectious diseases, was the main object of present research.Toxoplasmosis was selected as an experimental model, regarding the congenital and ocular forms, its abundance and requirement to invasive sample for diagnosis. Samples prepared by adding some defined Toxoplasma gondii (RH strain) tachyzoites to normal urine. Several urine DNA extraction and purification methods comparatively were tested for finding the best one. The amount of extracted DNA assessed using Nanodrope spectrophotometer and a multiplex semi-nested PCR were designed for evaluating the results.Urine samples with known number of tachyzoites were purified comparatively by five better methods. The results reviled that Cinnagen kit performed with more efficacies. It works well up to 1-5tachyzoites µl(-1) of urine. The amount and quality of extracted DNA of more than 100 urine samples with defined tachyzoites were analyzed using a nested PCR method. Finally methods were enough sensitive to detect one tachyzoite DNA in final PCR reaction.This method was enough eligible and sensitive to perform molecular tests for different purposes of instance detecting toxoplasmosis by urine sample as a convenience and non invasive method; although it is better to perform some more experiments using patients samples comparing gold methods.

Leucocytozoonosis is a disease of birds caused by obligate intracellular protozoa of the genus Leucocytozoon. We determined the prevalence of Leucocytozoon spp. using light and transmission electron microscopy in domestic birds in southwest of Iran.A total of 825 blood smears from 275 birds were examined for presence of infection. The structure morphology of Leucocytozoon spp. was studied using light and electron microscopy.Forty-four (16.0%) of the birds were positives for Leucocytozoon. The detected parasite were found in 14 chickens (5.1%), 12 geese (4.3%), 10 ducks (3.6%), and 8 turkeys (2.9%). The majority of the records were from the northeastern regions.Leucocytozoonosis are distributed in the Lorestan province bird population and electron microscopy can resolve the problem to distinguish between similar species of Leucocytozoon.

The aim of this study was to compare superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica parasites.F. gigantica and F. hepatica helminths were collected from abattoir and cultured in buffer media for 4 h at 37 °C. Excretory-Secretory (ES) products were collected, centrifuged and stored at -20(°)C. E-S protein concentration was measured by Bradford method and SOD activity was detected using RANSOD kit (Randox Lab. Crumlin, UK). Statistical t-test was conducted for analysis of results.Protein concentration for F. hepatica and F. gigantica were obtained 7.293 ug/ml and 19.65 ug/ml respectively and SOD activity as 0.721 U/ml and 1.189 U/ml, in that order. ES protein concentration of two species was significantly different (P<0.05), however the difference of SOD activity of two species was not significant.Two species of Fasciola have comparable SOD biochemical defense enzyme and can help us explain the parasite survival in host tissue.

Cytoadherence of Plasmodium falciparum- infected erythrocytes to host cells is an important trait for parasite survival and has a major role in pathology of malaria disease. Infections with P. falciparum usually consist of several subpopulations of parasites with different adhesive properties. This study aimed to compare relative sizes of various binding subpopulations of different P. falciparum isolates. It also investigated the adhesive phenotype of a laboratory P. falciparum line, A4, using different binding techniques.Seven different P. falciparum isolates (ITG, A4, 3D7 and four field isolates) were cultivated to late trophozoite and schizont and then cytoadherence to cell differentiation 36 (CD36), intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and vascular cell adhesion molecule (V-CAM) and E-selectin were examined. The relative binding sizes of parasite subpopulations to human receptors were measured by mini-column cytoadherence method. The adhesion phenotype of P. falciparum-A4 line was evaluated by in vitro static, flow-based and mini-column binding assays.The relative binding size of ITG, A4 and 3D7 clones to a column made with CHO/ICAM-1 was 68%, 54% and 0%, respectively. The relative binding sizes of these lines to CHO/CD36 were 59.7%, 28.7% and 0%, respectively. Different field isolates had variable sizes of respective CD36 and ICAM1-binding subpopulations. A4 line had five different subpopulations each with different binding sizes.This study provided further evidence that P. falciparum isolates have different binding subpopulations sizes in an infection. Furthermore, measurement of ICAM-1 or CD36 binding subpopulations may practical to study the cytoadherence phenotypes of P. falciparum field isolates at the molecular level.

The aim of present study was to determine the seroprevalence of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) among stray and owned dogs in Kouhsar district of Alborz Province, central Iran.The study was performed from March 2011 to July 2011 using Direct Agglutination Test (DAT). Three hundred and thirty seven dogs including 257 stary and 80 owned dogs were selected by random sampling. The agreement between serological data and sex, age, life style of dogs and clinical signs were assessed by Chi-square.DAT showed that from 337 serum samples collected from owned and stray dogs, 12sera (3.6%) were positive. The seroprevalance was 10% (8/80) among owned dogs and 1.6% (4/257) among stray dogs. A significant difference in seroplevalance was seen between owned and stray dogs (P = 0.01). The highest seroprevalence rate (14%) was observed among the ownership dogs of 5 years old and above. Statistical analysis revealed significant relation between seroprelvalence and age (P= 0.02). There was no statistically significant relation between male (6.3%) and female (2.2%) seroprevalence (P= 0.085).This survey indicates the importance and necessity of serologic screening of visceral leishmaniasis in human and dogs in Kouhsar district.

This study was carried out in Opi-Agu a tropical semi-urban autonomous community comprising of three villages in Enugu State, Nigeria, between the months of April and June 2010. It was designed to determine the prevalence of Onchocerca volvulus infection and assess the perception of the disease among the inhabitants of this community.A total number of 305 individuals comprising of 148 males and 157 females were examined for various manifestations of onchocerciasis symptoms using rapid epidemiological assessment (REA) method.Out of this number, 119 (39.02%) individuals were infected. Prevalence of infection among age groups and villages varied. Age group 41 yr and above had the highest (31.00%) prevalence, while among the villages, Ogbozalla village ranked higher (45.71%) than the other villages. Overall the prevalence of infection among the sexes revealed that males were more infected (43.24%) than the females (35.03%). Lichenified onchodermatitis (LOD) was the most prevalent (35.29%) onchocerciasis symptom among others identified in the area, while leopard skin (LS) had the lowest (20.17%) occurrence and blindness (0.00%) which is the most devastating effect of O. volvulus infection was not observed. Questionnaire responses from 410 individuals revealed that 34.8% respondent from Idi village and 28.1% from Ibeku village believed that O. volvulus infection occurs through poor personal hygiene. Bite of blackfly ranked least (10.6%) among the respondent's knowledge of the causes of onchocerciasis in Opi-Agu community.Opi-Agu community members had poor knowledge of onchocerciasis, the vector and of its etiologic organism. There is need for integration of community health education with mass chemotherapy.

Like several other parasites, Teladorsagia circumcincta secretes or excretes urea, but neither the rate of efflux nor the possible metabolic sources of the urea has been considered.Parasites were maintained by passage through sheep. Urea efflux was measured using phenol/hypochlorite after treatment with urea aminohydrolase. The kinetics of creatine amidinohydrolase and arginine amidinohydrolase were characterised by coupling the reactions with urea aminohydrolase and glutamate dehydrogenase.Infective L3 T. circumcincta secreted or excreted urea at 25% of the rate of NH3/NH4 (+). The rate of urea efflux was about 84 pmol h(-1) (10(3) larvae)(-1) over 4 hours, corresponding to about 11 nmol h(-1) mg(-1) protein. We could not detect urea aminohydrolase activity, but urea production by both creatine amidinohydrolase and arginine amidinohydrolase could be detected. The apparent K m and V max of creatine amidinohydrolase were 1.1 mM and 48 nmol h(-1) mg(-1) protein, respectively, and the activity was greatest at pH 8. The apparent K m and V max of arginine amidinohydrolase were 0.7 mM and 62 nmol h(-1) mg(-1) protein, respectively, and the activity was greatest at pH 7.9.The activity of creatine amidinohydrolase and arginine amidinohydrolase was sufficient to account for the rate of urea secretion or excretion.

The leishmanicidal and cytotoxic activity of ten essential oils obtained from ten plant specimens were evaluated.Essential oils were obtained by the steam distillation of plant leaves without any prior processing. Cytotoxicity was tested on J774 macrophages and leishmanicidal activity was assessed against four species of Leishmania associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis.Seven essential oils exhibited activity against Leishmania parasites, five of which were toxic against J774 macrophages. Selectivity indices of >6 and 13 were calculated for the essential oils of Ocimum basilicum and Origanum vulgare, respectively.The essential oil of Ocimum basilicum was active against promastigotes of Leishmania and innocuous to J774 macrophages at concentrations up to 1600 µg/mL and should be further investigated for leishmanicidal activity in others in vitro and in vivo experimental models.

Neosporosis is caused by an obligate intracellular parasitic protozoa Neospora caninum which infect variety of hosts. NcSRS2 is an immuno-dominant antigen of N. caninum which is considered as one of the most promising targets for a recombinant or DNA vaccine against neosporosis. As no study has been carried out to identify the molecular structure of N. caninum in Iran, as first step, we prepared a scheme to identify this gene in this parasite in Iran.Tachyzoite total RNA was extracted and cDNA was synthesized and NcSRS2 gene was amplified using cDNA as template. Then the PCR product was cloned into pTZ57R/T vector and transformed into E. coli (DH5α strain). Finally, the recombinant plasmid was extracted from transformed E. coli and sequenced. Bioinformatics analysis also carried out.The PCR product of NcSRS2 gene was sequenced and recorded in GenBank. The deduced amino acid sequence of NcSRS2 in current study was compared with other N. caninum NcSRS2 and showed some identities and differences.NcSRS2 gene of N. caninum successfully cloned in pTZ57R/T. Recombinant plasmid was confirmed by sequencing, colony PCR and enzymatic digestion. It is ready to express recombinant protein for further studies.