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Background: the aim of this study was the isolation of phages able to lyse some strains of MDR-K. pneumoniae (named vB_Kp1 and vB_Kp2) and E. aerogenes (named vB_Ea1) from swages. Materials and Methods: Different Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter aerogenesis strains isolated from clinical specimens (January to September 2018) in three Hospitals in Amol, (Mazandaran, Iran). Kirby Bauer’s disc diffusion method was used for determination of resistance profiles of these isolates using different antibiotics. The resistant strains to multi tested antibiotics (MDR) were selected to investigate the effect of isolated phages from wastewater and hospital sewage. Presence of phage investigated by plaque formation and after enriching and concentrating the isolated bacteriophages and staining the samples, a transmitting electron microscope (TEM) was used to observe the morphology of the bacteriophages. Phage identification tests including host range and One-step growth were performed. Results: TEM analysis revealed that tree phages have an icosahedral capsid and long contractile tail. Therefore, they are a member of the Myoviridae family. Phages were able to lyse 14 (56%) of the 25 strains of multidrug-resistant bacteria isolated. The one-step growth curve showed large burst sizes and short latent times. Conclusions: The formation of clear plaques shows the high lyse power of phages, so they have good potential for further analysis for clinical use as a therapeutic agent in the future.

Introduction: Pharmacy training is one of the important courses in pharmacy education, its practical parts are trained in educational pharmacies and some parts are taught theoretically. Due to some problems in teaching theoretical parts such as lack of students’ interests, virtual education is employed in this study to compare the possible effect of face-to-face and virtual education on Kerman pharmacy students’ marks in a pharmacy training course. Methods: This study was conducted on 191 pharmacy students in Kerman University of Medical Sciences in the academic years 2017 and 2018 using availability sampling. In the academic year 2017, students who were defined as control group (n=106), taught by lecture method in conventional classroom with practical sessions at pharmacy. In the academic year 2018, the students of experimental group (n=85) were taught through the virtual education using a Learning Management system (Navid) and then practiced at pharmacy like the control group. Independent t and chi-square tests were employed to analyze the gathered data. Results: The mean score of the experimental group in final exam (14.35±4.42) was significantly higher than of the control group (13.16±3.18) (t=2.097, p=0.038). Using Chi-square test, no statistically significant difference was found in term of male or female participants between the two groups (p=0.151, df=2, X2=3.78). Seventy-three students from the experiment group (85.9%) were tended to be educated by virtual education method in the pharmacy training course. Conclusion: Virtual education can be considered as a complementary method alongside with traditional-classroom-based teaching. Given the availability of a suitable platform through the Virtual Medical University and students’ satisfaction, blended- pharmacy training course is recommended.

Background and purpose: Combination therapy in cancer is a promising approach to increase efficacy and tolerability and to decrease adverse effects and drug resistance. Recently, anti-cancer properties of H2-receptor antagonists have been reported in several pre-clinical and clinical studies. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of cimetidine and famotidine H2-blockers on cytotoxicity of doxorubicin (DOX) on A549, MCF-7, and HT-29 human cancer cell lines. Materials and methods: The cytotoxicity of cimetidine and famotidine, alone and in combination with DOX, was determined using MTT assay after 24 h incubation. Results: Co-administration of H2-blockers with DOX led to an increase in cytotoxicity of the cell lines studied. While DOX at 1 μM could not reduce the viability of the cultured cells below 50%, its use in combination with cimetidine or famotidine at 25 μM reduced the percentage of viable cells below 50%. Conclusion: Combination of cimetidine/famotidine with DOX could be a potential candidate for chemotherapy.