Publications by authors named "Assmar M"

Background: is a gram positive, facultative intracellular bacteria and it is a causative agent of . Abortion is one the most important side effect of . Nano chitosan is widely used as nanomaterials considered due to its characteristics such as bactericidal and nontoxicity activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Bacterial spores are among the most efficient vaccine delivery vehicles. Because of their safety and efficacy, spores are increasingly used in this regard. The negatively charged surfaces of the spores allow antigens to be adsorbed onto these structures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The accurate identification of Acinetobacter spp. is challenging due to their high phenotypic and biochemical similarities. Because clinical relevance and antibiotic susceptibility are significantly different among different genomic species of Acinetobacter, the exact identification of A.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Strongyloidiasis is a public health concern in northern regions of Iran, caused by . Auto-infection cycle can be resulted in high parasitic load, especially in immunocompromised hosts. Because of low sensitivity of stool culture and stool-based microscopy techniques, detection of antibodies in patient's sera can be an alternative diagnostic technique for detection of the nematode.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: After cellulose, chitin is one of the most important polymers in crustaceans, insects, and fungi. Chitosan is one of the most important derivatives of chitin, which has important characteristics including degradability, non-toxicity, and biocompatibility antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.

Methods: Chitosan was extracted from shrimp using chemical methods and the degree of its austenitization was determined using a sub-red spectrophotometer and XRD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nanoformulations derived from fine porous ZnO quantum dot nanoparticles (QD NPs) can offer strong potential medical applications; especially in cancer therapy. ZnO QD NPs was synthesized by sol-gel hydrothermal process, fast cold quenching and further smart surface functionalization methods to obtain ultrasmall size (1-4 nm) NPs. ZnO nanopolymer, a wetting agent, PEG co-solvent and water/oil emulsion stabilizer were considered in our nanofluid formulation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The present study was conducted approximately 40 years ago, but its results have not been released. At the time of this study, the importance of the gut microbiota was not fully understood.

Methods: rodents, as one of the major reservoirs of bacterium in Iran, were compared in a disease endemic area (Akanlu, Hamadan, western Iran) and a non-endemic zone (Telo, Tehran, Iran) from 1977 to 1981.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: This study aimed to determine the role of tumor markers AFP, CA15-3, CA125, CA19-9 and CEA in patients with hepatitis B and C.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed from Oct 2012 to Oct 2014. Serum samples of 129 patients with hepatitis B and C referred to Guilan Liver and Digestive Disease Research Center in Rasht, Iran were collected and checked for the existence of the listed tumor markers by ELISA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Borrelia persica is a strain seen only in the Middle East and responsible for relapsing fever. These spirochetes are notable for multiphasic antigenic variation of polymorphic outer membrane lipoproteins, a phenomenon responsible for immune evasion. Diagnosis of the disease is a problem and requires a fixed antigen like the flagellar antigen.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 and 2 are common infectious agents worldwide. Data on prevalence of HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection are limited in Asia, especially in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of HSV type 1 and 2 based on age, gender, marital status, education, living area, job, symptoms and history of disease variables.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate antileishmanial effects of ASA via NO pathway in Leishmania major infected Balb/c mice. Moreover, toxicity and pathological consequences of ASA administration were investigated.

Methods: Balb/c mice were infected with L.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Aflatoxin M(1) (AFM(1)) is the metabolite of aflatoxin B1 (AFB(1)) and is found in milk when lactating animals are fed with contaminated feedstuff. The presence of AFM(1) in milk, pose a major risk for humans especially kids as it can have immunosuppressive, mutagenic, teratogenic and carcinogenic effects. The present study is aimed to investigate the occurrence of AFM(1) in subsidized pasteurized milk in Babol, Mazandaran Province, Iran.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Trichomoniasis is an extremely common sexually transmitted infection (STI) worldwide and is associated with important public health problems, including amplification of HIV transmission. This disease is in forms of symptomatic and asymptomatic in women and may depend on host as well as parasite variables. Most of the studies reported from females are based on examination of vaginal secretions and urine samples by direct smear and culture in modified Diamond's media.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The usefulness of a specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) avidity enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on recombinant GRA6 antigen for distinguishing between acute and chronic Toxoplasma infection was investigated. Two sets of serum samples obtained from pregnant women with acute, chronic, or no Toxoplasma infection collected in France and Iran were used. Among the French subjects, 19 of 20 (95%) women who experienced seroconversion during the past 4 months before sampling displayed low-avidity IgG antibodies against GRA6, while all 17 (100%) women with chronic infection had high-avidity antibodies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The C-terminal region of the merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP-1) of Plasmodium falciparum is a strong vaccine candidate as it is associated with immunity to the parasite. This corresponds approximately to the conserved 17th block of the gene and is composed of two EGF- like domains. These domains exhibit only four single amino acid substitutions which show several potential variants in this region of the gene.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Leishmania major is the causative agent of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) in which gerbils are the reservoir host. ZCL is of great public health importance in Iran. In the current investigation, nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocols were used to amplify a region of the ribosomal RNA amplicon of Leishmania (ITS1-5.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In addition to numerous immune factors, C-reactive protein (CRP) and nitric oxide (NO) are believed to be molecules of malaria immunopathology. The objective of this study was to detect CRP and NO inductions by agglutination latex test and Griess microassay respectively in both control and malaria groups from endemic areas of Iran, including Southeastern (SE) (Sistan & Balouchestan, Hormozgan, Kerman) and Northwestern (NW) provinces (Ardabil). The results indicated that CRP and NO are produced in all malaria endemic areas of Iran.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: Cryptosporidiosis is a parasitic zoonosis, which is prevalent all over the world. The manifestation of the disease is either self-limiting acute diarrhea in immunocompetent individuals, or potentially fatal chronic diarrhea in immunocompromised patients.

Methods: In this study, which was conducted in Tehran, 214 patients from ten health centers were investigated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite that reproduces within the epithelial cells of several organs of vertebrate hosts. The manifestation of the disease is either self-limiting acute diarrhea in immunocompetent patients, or fatal chronic diarrhea in immunocompromised patients. Common clinical symptoms include watery diarrhea, abdominal pain, and weight loss.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To investigate the vaccine potential of both the Toxoplasma GRA2 and GRA6 antigens, the full length recombinant proteins were produced in Escherichia coli, formulated in MPL adjuvant, and used alone and in combination ("mix"), to immunize CBA/J mice. Although high ratios of specific IgG2a/IgG1 were measured against both proteins, only spleen cells from GRA2-immunized mice and mix-immunized mice produced high amounts of both IFN-gamma and IL-2 upon induction with Toxoplasma gondii Excretory-Secretory Antigens. Intra peritoneal challenge with Toxoplasma cysts resulted in significant reduction of brain cysts in GRA2- and in mix-vaccinated mice only.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cutaneous leishmaniasis with a variation in its clinical signs is still one of the health problems in the world, region and Iran. Immune responses against leishmania consist of cytokines, immune cells and mediators. Macrophages participate actively in the inflammatory response by releasing chemokines and mediators including nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen and nitrogen intermediates.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The cellular response to Leishmania major (L. major) was evaluated in vivo by delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) skin test reaction using leishmanin as antigen. Our previous study had shown the development of species-specific DTH reaction in sensitized guinea pigs by application of a single purified antigen from promastigotes and filtered culture supernatants of L.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The potential roles of specific antibodies of different immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclasses and IgE in serological diagnosis of cystic echinococcosis (CE) were investigated by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on Antigen 5 (Ag5). Presence of IgG1 was demonstrated in all sera from 58 patients with CE. The most discriminatory and specific antibodies found in this study belonged to IgG4 and IgE.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Malaria has been prevalent for a long time in Iran and continues to be a health problem despite substantial control programs. In addition to numerous cytokines, nitric oxide (NO) is thought to be a key molecule and a novel target of malaria immunopathology.

Material And Methods: The objective of this research was to measure reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI) as stable metabolites of NO induction in plasma of malaria-infected patients in Iran.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF