Introduction & Objective: Nowadays, opportunistic fungi especially Candida albicans are the most common cause of life-threatening infections in immunodeficiency patients. Increasing Azole-resistant strains of C.albicans are a main problem in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the CDR2 gene in C.albicans azole resistant strains, isolated from AIDS patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis by RT-PCR method.
Materials & Methods: The present experimental study was conducted at Tarbiat Modares University of Medical Sciences in 2009. C. albicans isolates from HIV infected patients were identified by standard procedures, including germ tube formation, clamidospor and color of colonies on CHROM agar. At first, susceptibility of C. albicans isolates was assessed by disk diffusion agar technique. Then, CDR2 resistance gene was analyzed by RT-PCR and electrophoresis of the PCR products. Finally, patterns of the resulted bands were compared with standard fluconazole resistant strains. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS software.
Results: The results of drug sensitivity of 66 C. albicans isolates from AIDS patients revealed that 62.6% were susceptible, 8.6% were susceptible-dose dependent (SDD) and 28.7% were resistant. In RT-PCR analysis, 6% of patients had the CDR2 gene.
Conclusion: The use of phenotypic methods like disk diffusion agar, which is cheaper, along with genotypic methods, like RT-PCR, which provide the possibility of studying the mechanism of drug resistance, is recommended.
Farahbakhsh E, Yadegari M, Rajabi Bazl M, Taghizadeh Armaki M. Evaluation of Susceptibility of Strains of Candida Albicans Isolated from AIDS Patients to Fluconazole and Determination of CDR2 Resistance Gene in Resistant Strains by RT-PCR Method. armaghanj 2011; 16 (3) :201-210 URL: http://armaghanj.yums.ac.ir/article-1-338-en.html