| Background and Purpose: Candida albicans (C. albicans) is an opportunistic fungus that can colonize women’s
mucosal epithelial cell surfaces, causing vulvovaginitis in specific circumstances. The major genes contributing to drug
resistance in C. albicans are the candida drug resistance (CDR) and multi drug resistance (MDR) genes. The purpose of
this study was to evaluate the CDR-2 and MDR-1 gene expression patterns in C. albicans strains isolated from patients
with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis.
Materials and Methods: In this study, 40 isolates of fluconazole-resistant C. albicans were cultured on Sabouraud
dextrose agar. These isolates were collected from women with vulvovaginitis who were referred to a clinic in
Tehran, Iran, and transferred to a mycology laboratory. Then, RNA was extracted from the isolates using phenolchloroform and glass beads, and the complementary DNA (cDNA) was synthetized. To detect the semi-quantitative
expression of CDR-2 and MDR-1 genes, the reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) technique was performed using
specific primers.
Results: Our findings indicated that of the 40 C. albicans isolates, 35 (87.5%) strains were positive for mRNA of the
CDR-2 gene, 32 (80%) strains expressed mRNA of the MDR-1 gene, and 30 (75%) strains were confirmed to express
mRNA of both the CDR-2 and MDR-1 genes simultaneously using the RT-PCR assay.
Conclusion: According to the obtained results, the expression rates of CDR-2 and MDR-1 genes were high in
fluconazole-resistant C. albicans isolates, which can cause treatments to fail and result in chronic infections.
Inhibiting these important genes using novel or natural agents can help with the treatment of chronic and recurrent
vaginitis.
Keywords: C. albicans, CDR-2, Gene expression, MDR-1, RT-PCR, Vulvovaginal candidiasis |