Assessment of the antischistosomal activity of ginger [zingiber officinale] against schistosoma mansoni harbored in C57BL/6 mice

This study was conducted to assess the effect of ginger [Zingiber officinale] aqueous extract, on the oxidative status, antioxidant defense system and liver pathology of Schistosoma mansoni -infected C57BL/6 mice. Ginger at dose level of 500 mg/kg body weight was orally administered, daily for five weeks from the 5[th] week post-infection. Result showed that S. mansoni-infected mice exhibited a suppression of liver antioxidant capacity, and depleted reduced glutathione content [GSH], superoxide dismutase [SOD], and catalase [CAT] activities. In addition, the hepatic lipid peroxidation was deleteriously elevated in S. mansoni-infected mice. The hepatic total protein [TP], alanine aminotransferase [ALT] and aspartate aminotransferase [AST] activities were profoundly decreased due to their release from necrotic liver cells into blood of S. mansoni-infected mice. Concomitantly, histopathologiacl and histochemical data indicated severe hepatic cell necrosis and multigranulomas with different sizes and collagenous fiber contents indicated in both acute and chronic infection. Hepatic sinusoidal dilation, cytoplasmic degeneration, total protein pattern depletion as well as intravascular and perivascular inflammatory infiltration were also observed. The treatment of S. mansoni-infected mice with ginger extract succeeded to suppress oxidative stress by enhancing antioxidant defense system and decreasing lipid peroxidation. In addition ginger treatment markedly minimized the structural abnormalities where the size of granulomas and collagenous fiber were significantly reduced. The histochemical profile of TP level was partially restored. It could be concluded that oxidative damage and pathologic changes of liver may be improved partially by ginger treatment via suppression of the oxidative stress and enhancement of antioxidant defense system

Characterization, cloning and expression of NS3 protein gene of hepatitis c genotype 4A

Clone and express NS3 gene of the Egyptian strain ED43 of HCV genotype 4a in E. coli was studied. Gene and protein sequences of NS3 gene of the ED43 strain were first analyzed using PC/GENE program. DNA homology was 89% the homologies and that of the protein was 78.8% indicating that NS3 gene of the genotype 4a is different from those isolated from other strains. DNA of NS3 region of genotype 4a was amplified from HCV_ED43/PUC19 plasmid. The PCR product was cloned and expressed in E. coli M15 using pQE-30 vector. Fusion protein containing the peptides coded by HCV NS3 [NS3_4a] was expressed by Escherichia coli. The specific HCV antigenicity of the NS3_4a fusion protein was identified by western blotting