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  Background & Objectives : Visceral leishmaniasis is an important endemic disease in Iran and Meshkin shahr County is the most important foci of visceral leishmaniasis in Iran. The aim of this study is the survey of recent changes in epidemiological patterns of visceral leishmaniasis in Meshkin Shar area during 12 years.

  Methods : This is a descriptive retrospective study. Records of 193 cases with confirmed kala-azar disease were reviewed in the period of 2001-2012. Data collected from files and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS v.15.

  Results : From 193 patients with confirmed kala-azar disease, 85% were resident in rural and 15% in urban areas. Among of these patients, 43% were female and 57% male. About 66% of patients were under 2 years old, 23% in age group between 2-5 years and 11% above five years. Among four parts of Meshkin Shahr County, in the first five years of the study, the most cases of the disease were from the central part, but in second six years the most cases were from the west part of this county and in latest year (2012) it has been coverted .

  Conclusions : Incidence of kala-azar was decreased during last 12 years. Because of high infection rate in dogs and considering important role of these reservoirs in conserving and distribution of disease, stopped health activities in any parts of area can increase the incidence of disease.

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  Background & objectives: Trichomonas vaginalis is a protozoan parasite lives and also causes symptoms in urogenital system of human. Trichomoniasis is the widest spread infection which is transmitted through sexual contact and more than 170 million people are a ffected with Trichomonas vaginalis in the world. Trichomonas vaginalis in women causes pelvic inflammatory disease, increase in the risk of fallopian tube dependent infertility, ectopic pregnancy, preterm labor, the birth of low weight infants and the increase in the possibility of HIV transmission. Considering the importance of Trichomonas vaginalis infection in pregnant women and lack of data from Ardabil city, this study was performed to identify this infection in pregnant women referred to health and medical centers of Ardabil city.

  Methods: Vaginal discharge from 500 pregnant women was collected with sterile swap and disposable speculum and examined for Trichomonas vaginalis by direct microscopic examination and cultured in Diamond specific medium. A testimonial and questionnaire were completed for each case and the results analyzed using chi-square test by SPSS statistical software version 19.

  Results: In this study, the culture of samples displayed 12 positive cases (2.4%). Furthermore, Trichomonas vaginalis trophozoites were observed in five cases (1%) with direct microscopic examination. Among 12 positive cases, five respondents (41.7%) were in age range of 16-25 years and seven (58.3%) in 26-35 years old. Among different clinical manifestations there was a significant relation between discharge and the infection.

  Conclusion: The present survey confirmed the presence of Trichomonas vaginalis infection in pregnant women of Ardabil city. Therefore, an effective healthcare program by health authorities for prevention of infection in this group seems to be needed.

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Background & objectives: Candidiasis is a fungal infection which is caused by Candida spp. Candida albicans is the most common agent of candidiasis. This infection may cause various side effects during pregnancy including prematurity, chorioamnionitis, candidal pneumonia, and systemic candidiasis of infants. This research was conducted for determining the prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern of Candida spp, collected from pregnant women admitted to health centers in Ardabil, Iran.

Methods: Totally, 408 subjects were included in this study. Demographic data and risk factors were recorded using a questionnaire. Two swab samples were taken from vulvovaginal mucus. One swab was used for preparing smear and direct microscopic examination and the second one used for cultivating the specimen. After identification of Candida spp., antimicrobial resistance pattern was determined by disk diffusion method against Fluconazole, Ketoconazole, Clotrimazole, Nystatin and Amphotericin B. Results were interpreted according to CLSI guidelines. The data were analyzed by χ² and t-test using SPSS-19.

Results: Out of 408 subjects, 143 cases (35%) were positive for candida spp. The Candida albicans with 119 (83.2%) cases was the most prevalent species followed by Candida glabrata, Candida krusei, Candida parpsilosis and Candida tropicalis.According to disk diffusion test, overall 116 (81.1%) isolates were resistant to Fluconazole, 100 (69.9%) to Ketoconazole, 67 (46.9%) to Clotrimazole and 25 (17.5%) to Amphotericin B. Candida spp. had a highest sensitivity (118, 82.5%) to Nystatin. For Candida albicans 97(81.5%) isolates were resistant to Fluconazole and 99(83.2%) isolates to Nystatin. For Candida glabrata 10 (90.9%) isolates were resistant to Fluconazole, and 9(81.8%) sensitive to Nystatin.

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, vulvovaginal candidiasis is prevalent among pregnant women in Ardabil and isolates were significantly resistant against commonly used antifungal drugs. Nystatin was the most effective against Candida spp. As antibiogram for fungal agents is not routinely performed, the similar periodical studies could be useful for choosing appropriate antibiotics in treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis. 

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Background & objectives: Pentavalent antimonials are the first-line drugs for treatment of leishmaniasis, which have multiple side effects such as drug toxicity. Moreover, parasite resistance to these drugs is rising around the world. Second-line drugs, including Amphotericin B and pantamidine have also side effects and expensive for patients. According to the cytotoxic effects of paraquat, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of paraquat on Leishmania major promastigotes and HUVECs viability.
Methods: A number of 2.5×10⁶ of Leishmania major promastigotes were treated in each well of 96 well plates with different concentrations of paraquat. Cells were incubated for 48 hours in 24 °C. MTT test was performed for evaluating paraquat impact on promastigotes. The absorbance was measured using a microplate reader at 570 nm.  The trypan blue staining assay was performed to evaluate the number of viable Leishmania major promastigotes following paraquat treatment. Furthermore, the effect of paraquat concentrations on HUVECs viability was evaluated under the cell culture condition.
Results: The results of the MTT test showed that increasing concentrations of paraquat could significantly reduce the viability and the number of Leishmania major promastigotes in comparison to control group (p<0.05). In this study, the IC₅₀ for Leishmania major promastigotes was calculated as 272.46 µg/ml. Trypan blue results were in line with the finding of MTT assay. Moreover, we found that HUVECs were susceptible to paraquat (IC₅₀=188.99 µg/ml).
Conclusion: Paraquat has a strong inhibitory effect on Leishmania major promastigotes and human endothelial cells. Although more comprehensive studies on the effects of the topical use of paraquat on Leishmania major lesions in animal model and its side effects are necessary.

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Background & objectives: Drug-repurposing is the study on application of existing drugs for treatment or control of other diseases. Major advantage of the technique relies on a nominated drug molecule that is applied for pharmacodynamics optimization due to lack of serious pharmacokinetics challenges. According to the importance of the subject, a present contribution has been dedicated to the in-silico analysis of a few drug classes with the aim of achieving potential anti-leishmanial pharmacophores.   
Methods: 3D structure of protein targets within leishmania parasite were retrieved from Brookhaven Protein Data Bank (PDB) on the basis of literature reports to evaluate the related complexes with drugs via molecular docking. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of drug-target interaction patterns in docked complexes offered drugs with higher binding affinities toward targets and finally structural patterns or hypothetical anti-leishmanial pharmacophores were proposed with regard to the top-ranked pharmaceutical compounds.
Results: Highest free binding energy could be estimated for Nateglinide in binding to farnesyl diphosphate synthase (ΔG_b -13.30 kcal/mol). Among steroids, Norgestrel synthase (ΔG_b -9.48 kcal/mol) and Testosterone synthase (ΔG_b -8.05 kcal/mol) exhibited higher enzyme binding affinities and Arg82 was a key residue in making hydrogen bonds. Within fused tricyclic structural patterns, mirtazapine exhibited highest binding affinity to deoxy uridine triphosphate (ΔG_b -8.64 kcal/mol). In Carbamazepine, amide substituent of the central ring facilitated the formation of two effective hydrogen bonds with Gln21 and Asn25 in deoxy uridine triphosphate. 
Conclusion: On the basis of obtained results for steroids and fused tricyclic scaffolds, it will be possible to design molecules that can inhibit several pathogenic targets simultaneously.