The Effect of Oliveria Decumbens and Pelargonium Graveolens on Healing of Infected Skin Wounds in Mice

BACKGROUND

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most causative organisms in the skin wound infections. Development of resistant S. aureus to current treatments in individuals with low immunity is a global concern. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of herbal formulation against skin wound infection.

METHODS

The efficacy of herbal formulation containing Oliveria decumbens and Pelargonium graveolens essential oils was evaluated in comparison to mupirocin against Methicillin Resistant S. aureus (MRSA) related skin wound infection in mice animal model.

RESULTS

The herbal cream and mupirocin decreased the log CFU by 2.5±0.26 and 2.46±0.32, respectively, while the log CFU of S. aureus from wound skin were 5.9±0.26 and 5.65±0.23 for placebo and control groups, respectively. Moreover, the histological examinations showed that this cream improved the wound healing and increased the collagen deposition and wound contraction.

CONCLUSION

This natural new formulation with O. decumbens and P. graveolens essential oils could be recommended as a new candidate for wound healing.

In Silico Design of a Chimeric Protein Containing Antigenic Fragments of Helicobacter pylori; A Bioinformatic Approach

Helicobacter pylori is a global health problem which has encouraged scientists to find new ways to diagnose, immunize and eradicate the H. pylori infection. In silico studies are a promising approach to design new chimeric antigen having the immunogenic potential of several antigens. In order to obtain such benefit in H. pylori vaccine study, a chimeric gene containing four fragments of FliD sequence (1-600 bp), UreB (327-334 bp),VacA (744-805 bp) and CagL(51-100 bp) which have a high density of B- and T-cell epitopes was designed. The secondary and tertiary structures of the chimeric protein and other properties such as stability, solubility and antigenicity were analyzed. The in silico results showed that after optimizing for the purpose of expression in Escherichia coli BL21, the solubility and antigenicity of the construct fragments were highly retained. Most regions of the chimeric protein were found to have a high antigenic propensity and surface accessibility. These results would be useful in animal model application and accounted for the development of an epitope-based vaccine against the H. pylori.

The Helicobacter pylori resistance rate to clarithromycin in Iran

BACKGROUND

Clarithromycin is the most commonly suggested antibiotic in Helicobacter pylori eradication regimens. Increasing antibiotic resistance rate to clarithromycin is the main reason for therapeutic failure. The resistance is associated with mutations in the 23S rRNA gene.

AIM

The purpose of this study was to determine the clarithromycin resistance rate of isolated H. pylori strains from referral patients in Kashan, Iran.

METHODS

In total 95 H. pylori strains isolated from gastric mucosa of 246 patients with different clinical signs underwent gastroscopy in Kashan, Iran in 2013. The Epsilometer test was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of clarithromycin (CLR) in isolated H. pylori strains. Occurrence of mutation in 23S rRNA gene of clarithromycin-resistant strains was investigated with polymerase chain reaction-sequencing method.

RESULTS

Antibiotic susceptibility pattern showed that 32 strains (33.7%) were resistant to clarithromycin (MICs ≥1 μg/ml), 33.7% were intermediate resistant, while 31 of H. pylori strains (32.6%) were susceptible. The 23S rRNA gene mutations at positions A2143G and A2142G were detected in H. pylori clarithromycin-resistant strains.

CONCLUSION

The resistance rate to clarithromycin in Iran is high. H. pylori clarithromycin-resistant strains were not associated with sex, age, and disease. The A2143G mutation in clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori strains was the predominant finding.

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori vacA, cagA, cagE, iceA, babA2, and oipA genotypes in patients with upper gastrointestinal diseases

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Helicobacter pylori has been strongly associated with peptic ulcer diseases, chronic gastritis, ulcers, and reported as a risk factor for gastric cancer, too. The vaculating cytotoxin (vacA), the cytotoxin associated genes (cagA), the induced by contact with epithelium factor antigen (iceA gene), blood adhesion binding antigen (babA2), and outer membrane protein oipA have been described as different virulence factors of H. pylori. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of the vacA, cagA, cagE, iceA, babA2 and oipA genotypes of H. pylori isolates from patients with upper gasterointestinal problem or dyspepsia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

H. pylori isolated from endoscopic biopsies obtained from 222 studied patients. PCR was done only on cultured positive samples. The vacA alleles, cagA, cagE, iceA, babA2 and oipA genotypes were determined by PCR.

RESULTS

The isolation rate of H. pylori strains from culture of gastric biopsies was 16.7%. The vacA alleles s1, s2, m1 and m2 were detected in 20 (54.1%), 14 (37.8%), 9 (24.3%) and 23 (62.2%) isolates, respectively. VacA s1c genotype was detected in 70.3% of isolates. s1m2 was the most frequent vacA allelic combination in the examined H. pylori strains. The cagA gene was detected in 62.2%, cagE in 40.5%, iceA1 in 48.6%, iceA2 in 16.2%, oipA in 81.1% (95% CI: 0.0902-0.1798) and babA2 in 94.6% (95% CI: 0.113- 0.207). A significant correlation was observed between vacAs1 and cagA genotypes (P<0.008), vacAs1/cagE (P=0.001), vacAs2/cagA (P<0.047), and vacAs2/cagE (P=0.016) with Non-ulcer dyspepsia; but there were not observed any correlation between other virulence markers.

CONCLUSION

No significant correlation was found between the existence of vacA, cagA, cagE, iceA, babA2, and oipA genes with peptic ulcer diseases and non-ulcer dyspepsia groups of studied patients.