Identification of Candidaspecies using PCR-RFLP in cancer patients in Iran

Opportunistic infections caused by Non–Candida albicans. have been increasing. Traditional methods that are used to identify clinical isolates of Candidaspecies are time-consuming and not appropriate for rapid, accurate and reliable identification. Purpose:To identify Candidaspp isolated from cancer patients using PCR-restriction enzyme. Materials and ethods:Using universal primers, ITS1 and ITS4, in this study, we could amplify ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA regions at both 80 clinical isolates and 3 standard strains. The PCR products were digested with two restriction enzymes MspI and BlnI separately. Result:We successfully identified all isolated species using two restriction enzymes (MspI, BlnI). Candida albicanswas the most common species (77.5%), followed by C. glabrata(15%), C. tropicalis(5%), C. krusei(2.5%). Although the primers and enzyme had the ability to identify C. parapsilosis, C. guilliermondii, C. dubliniensis, present isolates did not include these among identified ones. Conclusion:RFLP-PCR using ITSI and ITS4 primers and restriction enzyme is a rapid, easy, reliable and also applicable method in clinical laboratory for identification of medically important Candidaspp.