Suchergebnisse

Background: Military populations are more prone to respiratory infections worldwide. There is a dearth of research about the role of viral pathogens in the etiology of respiratory infections in military trainees in Iran. Hence, we aimed to investigate the molecular epidemiology and clinical symptoms of respiratory viruses among this population. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 400 military trainees with symptoms of respiratory infection, referred to the military medical clinic center in the basic military training camp of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nucleic acid extraction from the throat or nasopharyngeal swab samples was performed by an automated extraction system. The extracts were then analyzed by the CLART® PneumoVir array system for the detection of respiratory viruses. Results: All military trainees were male, aged between 18 and 57 years (mean: 21.69 years). Sore throat (75.5%), rhinorrhea (63.2%), cough (59.2%), fever (59.2%), and nasal congestion (50.5%) were amongst the most common symptoms. Overall, viral pathogens were detected in a total count of 124 (31%). The most commonly detected viruses were rhinovirus (7.2%), respiratory syncytial virus A (7.2%) and influenza B virus (6%). Conclusion: This study was an important first step for understanding the etiological role of viral pathogens in respiratory infection among military trainees population in Iran. Our results indicated that rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus A and influenza B virus are important viral pathogens causing respiratory infection in military trainees, respectively. However, further multi-center studies with larger sample size are strongly recommended to confirm our findings.

Background and Aim: The CCHF (Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever) virus causes a severe disease in human with a case fatality rate of up to 50%. Since, there is no specific treatment or approved vaccine against CCHF viral infections, an accurate and early detection as well as a reliable surveillance and quantitative determination of viral load is necessary for patient improvement and case management. In this research, our aim was to develop a probe based one-step real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) assay for in-house quantitative detection of CCHF virus. Methods: At first, the highly conserved S-fragment sequence of CCHF virus genome was adapted from GenBank and the specific probe and primers targeting this region were designed. Then, viral RNAs were extracted from 37 blood samples of different patients from east of Iran (Zahedan). The specificity and sensitivity of the probe and primers were also evaluated in positive blood samples, confirmed to have CCHF virus. A standard (PTG19-T vector containing S-fragment) for quantization was also constructed and the viral load was determined in some of positive samples. Results: From a total of 37 suspicious blood samples, 15 samples were confirmed to be positive for CCHF virus by this probe based one-step rRT-PCR assay and no false-positive result was detected according to sequencing data. The predicted fragment of 176 bp was also confirmed in all positive samples by gel-based electrophoresis analysis. The assay was linear between 10 to 103 copy numbers per each microliter of extracted plasmid for this technique and the viral load determined in one of patient blood samples was 55,000 viral particles per each milliliter, for example. Bioinformatics and experimental evaluations approved the specificity of this assay. The LOD of the assay was 10 (or fewer) copy numbers of viral genome per each microliter of the extracted genome. Conclusions: This research showed that the developed probe based one-step rRT-PCR assay is a specific, rapid, sensitive and the simple tool for detection and viral load determination of the CCHF virus. Keywords: CCHF Virus, Real-time RT-PCR, Quantitative, viral load, S-region.

Chronic hepatitis can resolve spontaneously or progress to more advanced stages, i.e. fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer, respectively. Two million deaths each year are attributed to liver diseases globally. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis comprise 11th position in leading causes of death worldwide. Viral infections account for the etiologic factor of most cases of hepatitis. Almost the only available way for the treatment of end stages of hepatitis is liver transplantation. The biggest problem with this therapeutic approach is the number of liver transplant donors is less than the number of recipients. Therefore, more advanced methods must investigate. Recently, gene therapy by the utilization of stem cells yielded promising results in clinical and preclinical investigations to the treatment of liver diseases. Novel genome editing tools such as TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9 consider as powerful genome correction approaches and can employe for iPSCs gene editing. This paper highlights the various aspects of gene therapy through stem cells for liver diseases.

Recently, respiratory viral infections have witnessed substantial diagnostic evolution, with the advent of emergent pathogenic agents and the improvement of new diagnostic approaches. Acute viral respiratory infection (ARVI) commonly causes illness and fatality, particularly in pediatric patients. Adenovirus has the highest prevalence in upper and lower respiratory tract infections (RTIs) amongst respiratory pathogens of importance. The purpose of this research was to introduce two effective techniques for the detection of adenovirus respiratory infection in Human samples, cell culture, and real-time PCR. Samples from patients aged less than ten years were obtained from Baqiyatallah (as) Hospital and cultured on HEK cells after preparation. After observing the cytopathic effects of the virus, a molecular test (Real-time PCR) with the help of specific primers was done on samples taken from the cell culture. Both assays detected viruses in clinical samples, and results of cell culture and real-time PCR confirmed infection with adenovirus in samples. According to our findings, simultaneous use of tests (cell culture and PCR) based test real-time PCR is a somewhat reliable method for detecting adenovirus in clinical specimens.