Isolation and genotyping of Candida albicans involved in vaginal candidiasis among pregnant women in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil cities

Abstract

Background and objective: Vaginal candidiasis is a common infection among pregnant women. The current study aimed to investigate the etiologic species of vaginal candidiasis and the genotypes of C. albicans isolated from vaginal samples among pregnant women in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Methods: Vaginal swabs were collected from pregnant women admitted to the Maternity hospital in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil cities from March 2016 to December 2018. Candida isolates were identified on CHROMagar medium, then confirmed with PCR depending on ITS region. All C. albicans isolates were confirmed using chitin synthase gene (CHS1) and subjected to genotypic analysis based on the transposable intron in 25S rDNA with using CA25S and CA-INT primers. DNA sequencing of 25S rDNA region was done by using CA and CA-INT primers. Results: Among 340 women tested, 114 (33.53%) were positive for vaginal candidiasis. Five Candida species were identified, where they are C. albicans (56.14%), C. glabrata (24.56%), C. kefyr (11.40%), C. tropicalis (5.27%) and C. krusei (2.63%). It has been found that C. albicans significantly (P <0.01) higher than non-albicans species. The genotypes A (450 bp), B (840 bp), and C (450 and 840 bp) of C. albicans were detected. The Genotype A (54.69%) was the most prevalent, followed by Genotype B (34.38%) and Genotype C (10.94%). In regards to genetic variation, genotypes A and B were more similar compared to genotype C. Conclusion: The current study revealed a high prevalence of vaginal candidiasis with different genotypes of C. albicans among pregnant women. Therefore, it is worth considering a vaginal swab culture with clinical symptoms during the diagnosis of vaginal candidiasis. Keywords: Candida; Genotypes; Vulvovaginitis; Candidiasis; Prevalence.