en بيماريهاي عفوني وگرمسيري Tropical and Infectious Diseases پژوهشي Research <p><b>Background:</b> Cholera is a potentially epidemic and life-threatening secretory diarrhoea characterized by voluminous watery stools, often accompanied by vomiting, and resulting in hypovolemic shock and acidosis. It is caused by certain strains of the species <i>Vibrio cholerae </i>which can also cause mild or in apparent infections. The aim of this study is the evaluation of Capsaicin, as a potential inhibitor of zonula occludens toxin production in <i>V. cholerae</i> ATCC 14035.<br> <b>Materials and Methods: </b>MIC of capsaicin was determined by Broth Microdilution method according to CLSI guidelines. The zot gene expression level were analysed using real-time RT&ndash;PCR technique.<br> <b>Results:</b> Results from MIC test showed that 100 &mu;g mL&minus;1of capsaicin was the highest concentration that did not affect the bacterial growth however, zonula occludens toxin (zot) gene expression of the tested strain was significantly inhibited by capsaicin in a dose-dependent manner at sub-bacteriocidal concentrations. The recA gene did not show any significant difference in its expression with or without capsaicin.<br> <b>Conclusion:</b> Capsaicin is one of the active compounds of red chili that can drastically suppress zot gene expression and shows promising inhibitory effect against <i>V. cholerae </i>zot production. Thus, routine intake of red chilli, which is easily available and inexpensive, may be an alternative approach to prevent and control symptoms of cholera.</p> RNA Extraction, cDNA synthesis and Real-Time PCR 33 35 http://rmm.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-692-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Soroor Erfanimanesh s_erfanimanesh@yahoo.com 10031947532846006143 10031947532846006143 No Department of Microbiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Gita Eslami g_eslami@yahoo.com 10031947532846006144 10031947532846006144 Yes Department of Microbiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Hossein Goudarzi hgod100@yahoo.com 10031947532846006145 10031947532846006145 No Department of Microbiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Arezou Taherpour are_taherpour@yahoo.com 10031947532846006146 10031947532846006146 No Microbiology Department, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran Ali Hashemi hashemi1388@yahoo.com 10031947532846006147 10031947532846006147 No Department of Microbiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Elahe Taki elahe.taki.mm@gmail.com 10031947532846006148 10031947532846006148 No Department of Microbiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.