Studying the presence and abundance of pathogenic genes involved in hyphae production in Candida albicans isolated from patients with MS

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic debilitating disease of the nervous system. Studies have shown that this disease may be associated with weakness in the immune system. On the other hand, today we know that opportunistic infections affect people who have weakness or defects in the immune system. In addition, one of the most important microorganisms that play a role in causing opportunistic infections is Candida albicans, which causes opportunistic fungal infections in patients with MS. The objective of this study was to measure the frequency of some selected genes involved in pathogenesis such as Hwp۱, Als۱ and Als۳ in the production of fungal filaments in C. albicans.MATERIALS AND METHODSRandom sampling was done from patients with MS and healthy cases. Yeast isolates were identified by morphological and biochemical methods. Then, the antifungal susceptibility test was determined via disk diffusion assay following CLSI M۲۷-A۳ protocol. Subsequently, the frequency of the selected genes was done using the conventional PCR method.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONTwenty seven isolates of C. albicans were isolated and identified from the studied subjects. The results showed that ۹۲.۶% (۲۵ isolates) and ۷.۴% (۲ isolates) were sensitive and resistant to fluconazole, respectively. Also, the frequency of Hwp۱, Als۱ and Als۳ genes was ۸۱.۵%, ۴ ۷۰% and ۴۰.۷%, respectively. This result showed that the abundance of genes involved in Candida filament production is significant in the studied patients. On the other hand, it has been found that the frequency of Hwp۱ gene was significantly different from the other two genes between healthy cases and patients.CONCLUSIONThe results of the present study have shown a high frequency of studied genes in clinical isolates. Therefore, it can be concluded that the presence of Candida in the studied patients is not just a normal flora, but by decreasing the immune system of these people, Candida has acted pathogenically through the production of filaments. In addition, these results indicate the fact that infection with C. albicans may be associated with a possible increase in the severity of MS. Therefore, it is suggested that in future studies, fungi should be considered as a possible risk factor for increasing MS.

کلیدواژه ها:

Candida albicans ، Fluconazole ، Multiple Sclerosis