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Blastocystis is one of the most frequent protozoa in human faecal samples, however, little is known about its relation with obesity. The present study aimed to analyse Blastocystis infection and subtypes in three adult populations classified according to body mass index (BMI). Faecal samples from 346 individuals were classified according to BMI: control (124 cases), overweight (110 cases), and obese (112 cases). Nucleic acid extraction from the samples was followed by amplification of partial 18S ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA) gene of Blastocystis. The neighbourjoining method was used to construct a phylogenetic tree from evolutionary distance data. Clinical findings were compared between Blastocystis infected and non-infected cases. Blastocystis was detected in 52 (15%) of 346 individuals with PCR assay. Blastocystis was less frequent in obese group (8%) than both control group (18.2%) and overweight group (18.5%). Subtype distribution was as follows: ST3 (n=21; 43.8%), ST2 (n=15; 31.3%), ST1 (n=10; 20.8%) and ST7 (n=2; 4.2%). The overall nucleotide diversity of 18S ribosomal RNA gene was 0.049. None of the gastrointestinal symptoms and gender was not significantly related with the infection. Despite the cross sectional nature of the study including a specific population, it suggests a negative association between Blastocystis infection and obesity. In addition, the lack of significant relation further supports asymptomatic colonization of Blastocystis.

New fourteen antimony(III) complexes of general formula [SbLnCl3] (where n= 1 or 2, L =2-aminopyridine, 5-methyl-2-aminopyridine, 2-aminopyrimidine, 4,6-dimethoxy-2-aminopyrimidine, 2-benzyl-2-thiopseudeourea,2-guanidinobenzimidazole, 2-amino-5-thiol-4,6-dimethoxypyrimidine, 2-amino-5-(1H-tetrazol-5-ylthio)-4,6-dimethoxypyrimidine, N-2-pyrimidine, 2-piperidinecarboxamide, N-2-pyrimidine, 2-pyrrolidinecarboxamide, 2-amino-5-(1H-tetrazol-5-iltiyo)-4,6-dimethoxypyrimidine-2-pyrrolidinecarboxamide and N-2-pyrimidine, 5-chloro-2-thiophenecarboxamide, N-2-benzothiazol-2-pyrrolidinecarboxaamide, N,N-(1,2-phenyl)dipyrrolidine-2-carboxamide) have been synthesized and their anti-leishmanial activity have been assessed in vitro against Leishmania tropica promastigotes. The best complex, Sb(2-guanidinobenzimidazole)Cl-3 is demostrated 3.16% growth inhibition at a concentration of 31.25 mu g/mL. In general, antimony(III) complexes containing pyrimidine ligands has showed higher anti-leishmanial activity than antimony(III) complexes bearing pyridine ligands, and electron-donating substituents decrease the anti-leishmanial activity. All complexes have been optimised with DFT/B3LYP/LANL2DZ method in the gas phase. Several descriptors are tested to fmd a quantitative correlation between anti-leishmanial activity and structural properties of the complexes by best multiple linear regression method. Good correlations are obtained with minimum net atomic charge for a C atom and maximum bond order of a Cl atom. The developed QSAR equation is internally validated.

World Health Organization reported that approximately one billion people are at risk in endemic areas, one million cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and approximately 300,000 cases of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) were reported per year in the last five years. The number of deaths due to VL is reported to be approximately 20,000 per year. Approximately 2500 cases/year have been reported as CL, caused by Leishmania tropica and Leishmania infantum, in Turkey. The significant increase observed in many cities mainly in the provinces of Mediterranean and Aegean regions in cases and foci in recent years, suggests that there may be an increase in this infections in the following years as well. In Turkey, the causative agent of CL is L.tropica and meglumine antimoniate is used in the treatment of CL. We aimed to determine antimony resistance genes specific for L.tropica by comparing the gene and protein expressions of antimony-resistant and non-resistant L.tropica strains. Ltropica isolates obtained from 3 CL patients without antimonate resistance from Aegean, Mediterranean and Southeastern regions of Turkey were provided to transform into 3 resistant isolates against meglumine antimony in the laboratory conditions. Gene expression alterations by microarray method

Objective: Since the identification of Blastocystis subtypes (ST) in the last decade, much has been learned about the genetic diversity of Blastocystis isolates in different populations, except pregnant women. The objective of this study is to investigate the genetic diversity of Blastocystis in pregnant women and analyse some demographic factors. Methods: The faecal samples from 100 pregnant women were collected at an Obstetrics and Gynecology Department in Muğla, Turkey. Thereafter, Blastocystis positivity was detected by direct microscopy and culture. The positive cultures were subjected to DNA isolation, and the Blastocystis barcode region was amplified with polymerase chain reaction. Next, the sequences were queried against GenBank nucleotide and Blastocystis STs (18S) databases. Results: Blastocystis was detected in 14% (14 out of 100) of the faecal samples by culture and 10% (10 out of 100) of the samples by direct microscopy. Nine of Blastocystis isolates (64.4%) were ST3, three (21.4%) were ST1 and two (14.2%) were ST2. Neither the demographic features nor the gastrointestinal symptoms were statistically related to Blastocystis infection. Conclusion: The findings in this study agreed with the most of the previous human studies that found ST3 as the most abundant genotype. This study reported the frequency of Blastocystis in pregnant women and highlighted the importance of comprehensive studies with more cases of Blastocystis during pregnancy. Amaç: Blastocystis alt tiplerinin (ST) yakın tarihte tanımlanmasından bu yana, farklı popülasyonlarda Blastocystis izolatlarının genetik çeşitliliği hakkında yeni bilgiler elde edilmiştir. Bu çalışmada, gebe kadınlarda Blastocystis’nin genetik çeşitliliğinin araştırması ve bazı demografik faktörlerin değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Yöntemler: Çalışma kapsamında, Muğla Kadın Hastalıkları ve Doğum Bölümü’nden toplam 100 hamile kadından toplanan dışkı örnekleri incelenmiştir. Blastocystis pozitifliği, direkt mikroskopi ve kültür ile tespit edilmiştir. Pozitif kültürlerden DNA izolasyonu yapılmış ve Blastocystis genomunda barkod bölgesi polimeraz zincir reaksiyonu ile amplifiye edilmiştir. Elde edilen diziler, Genbank ve Blastocystis alt tür (18S) veri tabanlarına girilerek alt tipler belirlenmiştir. Bulgular: Kültür yöntemi ile 14 dışkı örneğinde (%14), direkt mikroskopi yöntemiyle ise 10 örnekte (%10) Blastocystis saptanmıştır. Blastocystis izolatlarının dokuzu (%64,4) ST3, üçü (%21,4) ST1 ve ikisi (%14,2) ST2 alt tipi olarak tanımlanmıştır. Demografik özellikler ve gastrointestinal semptomlar değerlendirildiğinde, herhangi biri Blastocystis enfeksiyonu ile istatistiksel olarak ilişkili bulunmamıştır. Sonuç: Bu çalışmada ST3’ün en yaygın genotip olarak bulunması, önceki çalışmaların birçoğu ile uyumlu görülmektedir. Ayrıca, çalışmamız gebelerde Blastocystis görülme sıklığını ortaya koymakta ve bu konuda örnek sayısının fazla olduğu kapsamlı çalışmalara ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır.

Amaç: Echinococcus granulosus insanlarda kistik ekinokokkozis (KE) olarak adlandırılan hastalığa yol açan bir helminttir. Parazitinbaşta karaciğer ve/veya akciğer olmak üzere iç organlarda yavaş büyüyen içi sıvı dolu kistler oluşturduğu bilinmektedir. Buhastalık Türkiye’de ve hayvancılığın yaygın olduğu diğer ülkelerde halk sağlığı ve ekonomik açıdan halen önemini korumaktadır.Bu çalışmada Ocak 2005- Ocak 2017 tarihleri arasında Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi ParazitolojiLaboratuvarı'na KE şüphesiyle başvuran olguların retrospektif olarak değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır.Yöntemler: Toplam 3446 serum örneği (2019 kadın ve 1427 erkek), anti-E. granulosus immünoglobulin G antikorlarının varlığınısaptamak için ELISA yöntemi ile çalışılmıştır. Patolojik olarak KE olduğu doğrulanmış olgular sosyo-demografik özellikleri (yaş,cinsiyet, yaşadığı yer ve köpek besleme vb), pozitiflik dilüsyonları ve kist lokalizasyonları açısından değerlendirilmiştir.Bulgular: Yaşları 4-87 aralığında değişen toplam 3446 olgunun 1104’ü (%32) pozitif olarak saptanmış olup, bunlardan 642’sini(%58,1) kadınlar, 462’sini (%41,9) erkekler oluşturmaktadır. Olguların 247’sinin (%22,3) KE tanısı patolojik olarak kesinleşmiştir.Olgular parazitin yerleştiği lokalizasyona göre incelendiğinde en sık tutulan organ (%81,8) karaciğer olup, bunu akciğer (%6,1)takip etmektedir.Sonuç: İlimizde KE’nin önemli bir halk sağlığı sorunu olmaya devam ettiği bu nedenle, önleyici çalışmaların yapılması gerektiğibir kez daha vurgulanmıştır. Objective: Echinococcus granulosus is the causative helminth of cystic echinococcosis (CE). The parasite is known to form fluidfilledcysts that grow slowly in the internal organs, particularly the liver and/or lungs. This disease is still important in termsof public health and economically in Turkey and other countries where animal husbandry is widespread. The aim of our studywas to retrospectively evaluate the cases that were admitted to the Adnan Menderes University, Training and Research HospitalParasitology laboratory on suspicion of CE between January 2005 and January 2017.Methods: Totally, 3446 sera (from 2019 female and 1427 male) were tested with an in-house ELISA for the presence of E.granulosus specific IgG antibodies at the timeswhen they were sent. Socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, residence, anddog ownership), positivity titers, and cyst locations of pathologically confirmed CE patients were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The ages of patients varied between 4-87 years. It was found that 1104 (32%) of the 3446 sera were positive, and of them, 642 (58.1%) were femaleand 462 (41.9%) were male. Patients who had pathologically confirmed CE diagnosis constituted 247 (22.3%) of the total seropositive sera. Liver was themost commonly affected organ (81.8%), followed by lungs (6.1%).Conclusion: CE remains an important public health problem in our city; therefore, it is once again emphasized that preventive studies should be planned.

WOS: 000465377600009 PubMed ID: 31130125 Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a parasitic disease transmitted by vector sand flies Phlebotomus and Lutzomyia. This disease is characterized by long time non-healing skin lesions, and caused by Leishmania species. CL is the most common infection in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia in Turkey and L. tropica is known as the main agent of the disease. Number of cases is increasing in our country in time because of malnutrition, migration, travel, low socioeconomic level and ecological changes. For the treatment, the pentavalent antimonials are often used as intralesionally for many years, and it was reported that resistant cases have increased in recent years. New treatment methods and anti-Leishmanial activity of new agents have been investigated because of side effects, resistance development and toxic reactions of the present drugs. These studies are first carried out in vitro and afterwards with in vivo experimental animal models. Reporter gene technology has been used to investigate a variety of purposes like biological events in microorganisms and the efficacy and resistance of drugs in recent years. The major areas that green fluorescent protein (gfp) used are that they can be incorporated into different genes to determine the amount of expression of these genes in different organisms and can be used as markers in living cells. Especially gfp gene, which encodes the green fluorescent protein, is widely used nowadays. Gene-based assays have several advantages like being easy to follow-up, inexpensive and have improved biosecurity. The aim of the present study was to perform the transfection of L. tropica with "enhanced gfp (egfp)" and in vitro usefulness of gfp-transfectants as a drug screening model in comparison to the conventional methods. Promastigotes of L. tropica were transfected with p6.5/egfp by electroporation and selected for tunicamycin-resistance as previously described. L. tropica promastigotes transfected with gfp and in vitro effect of meglumine animoniate was assessed using different methods such as fluorescence microscopy, fluorometer and XTT (2,3-bis-(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxyanilide) assay. The use of gfp-transfected Leishmania strains was found more rapid and more sensitive by fluorescent microscopy and fluorometry than conventional assays for the evaluation of potential anti-leishmanial agents. Consequently, stable gfp-transfected Leishmania species will be used in vitro and in vivo for screening of anti-leishmanial drugs and vaccine development as well as for understanding the biology of the host-parasite interactions at the cellular level. As a result ot this study, gfp transfected model using a Turkish L. tropica isolate was established to be used in further studies.

Kist hidatik (KH), Echinococcus granulosus metasestod formunun insan ve otçullarda başta karaciğer olmak üzere değişik organlarda gelişmesi sonucu meydana gelen zoonotik karakterli bir enfeksiyondur. Küresel bir yayılıma sahip olan bu enfeksiyon gelişmekte olan diğer ülkelerde olduğu gibi ülkemizde de halen halk sağlığını tehdit eden önemli bir parazitik hastalık olarak görülmektedir. Parazitin morfolojik ve biyolojik özellikleri izolatların tiplendirilmesinde yetersiz kaldığı ve bu nedenle moleküler yöntemlerin kullanılmasının gerektiği bildirilmektedir. Günümüze kadar 11 farklı genotipi (G1-G10 ve aslan suşu) tanımlanan E.granulosus’un genotipleri ile konak özgüllüğü arasında doğrudan bir ilişki olduğu gösterilmiştir. Bu çalışmada, Aydın’da insanlardan elde edilen E.granulosus izolatlarının genotiplerinin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Eğitim ve Uygulama Hastanesinde KH nedeniyle cerrahi operasyon geçiren olgulardan alınan kist sıvıları değerlendirilmiştir. Bu örnekler fosfat tamponlu tuzlu su (PBS) ile yıkanarak %70 etil alkolde -20ºC’de kullanılıncaya kadar saklanmıştır. İzolatların mitokondriyal sitokrom C oksidaz alt ünite 1 (cox1) geni kısmi olarak polimeraz zincir reaksiyonu (PCR) ile çoğaltılmıştır. Elde edilen PCR ürünleri sekanslandıktan sonra Genbank’da bulunan diziler ile karşılaştırılmış ve referanslar ile evrimsel uzaklıkları belirlenmiştir. İzolatların genotipleri tam veya en fazla benzerlik gösterdikleri referanslar göz önüne alınarak belirlenmiştir. Çalışmamızda toplam 20 E.granulosus izolatının genotipi belirlenmiş olup koyun suşu olarak tanımlanan Genotip 1’in (G1) izolatların büyük kısmını (15 izolat, %75) oluşturduğu ve bunu domuz/deve suşu olarak tanımlanan G6/7’nin (5 izolat, %25) izlediği saptanmıştır. Diğer bölgelerden bildirilen E.granulosus cox1 gen dizileri ile bu çalışmadakiler birlikte değerlendirildiğinde ülkemizin coğrafi konumuyla muhtemel ilişkili sonuçlara ulaşıldığı görülmüştür. Çalışmamızda koyun suşu olan G1’in yanı sıra G6/7’ye rastlanması deve ve yaban domuzlarının da bölgemizde KH hastalığının yayılmasında rolünün olabileceğini ve insanlar için bulaş riskini artırabileceğini düşündürmektedir. Ülkemizde E.granulosus’un moleküler epidemiyolojisi konusunda sınırlı sayıda çalışma bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışma ile ilimizde ilk kez E.granulosus izolatları genotiplendirilmiş olup elde edilen bulguların epidemiyolojik verilerle birleştirilerek bundan sonra alınacak koruyucu önlemlerde yol gösterici olabileceği düşünülmektedir., Cyst hydatid (CH) is a zoonotic infection that is characterized by the development of metacestode form of Echinococcus granulosus primarily in liver of humans and ruminants. With a worldwide distribution, the infection is still considered as an important parasitic disease that threatens the public health in Turkey as in the other developing countries. Morphological and biological features of parasite fail to discriminate isolates for typing so molecular methods should be used for this purpose. Recently, a total of eleven genotypes of E.granulosus (G1-10 and lion strain) have been identified and these genotypes are highly correlated with host specificity of the parasite. the aim of this study, was to determine the genotypes of E.granulosus isolates from human samples in Aydın. Cyst fluids from CH operated cases in Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Medicine, Training and Research Hospital were used in the present study. Samples were washed with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and stored in 70% ethanol at -20ºC. Mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene was amplified partially by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). the PCR products were sequenced initially, compared to other database in Genbank and evolutionary distances were estimated with references. the genotypes of E.granulosus isolates were determined according to the closest or exact matches to the references. A total of 20 E.granulosus isolates were genotyped in the present study, most of them (15 isolates, 75%) were identified as Genotype 1 (G1), that is defined as sheep genotype and the remaining isolates were defined as pig/camel genotype G6/7 (five isolates, 25%). A possible explanation to our results may be related to the geographical position of Turkey. the identification of G6/7 in addition to sheep genotype G1 indicated that pigs and camels in this area have role in the transmission and distribution of E.granulosus to humans. There is still limited information about the molecular epidemiology of E.granulosus in Turkey. This study reveals the first data about the genotype distribution of E.granulosus in our city, therefore the findings may help to design control program for the disease with a combination of epidemiological data.