Therapeutic efficacy of chitosan nanoparticles and albendazole in intestinal murine trichinellosis

Most of the drugs used for the treatment of trichinellosis showed a limited bioavailability and a high degree of resistance. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new agents to improve the bioavailability of these drugs. This work assessed the use Chitosan [CH] nanoparticles singly or combined with albendazole [ABZ] for the treatment of experimental trichinellosis. Fifty male albino mice were used. They were divided into six experimental groups. Chitosan

nanoparticles were used orally at a dose of 100mg/kg/day starting from 3rd dpi for three successive days for the treatment of the intestinal phase of infection either alone or loaded with full dose or half dose of ABZ. Results showed significant reduction in all treated groups with the highest reduction rate of adult 99.1%, improvement of the intestinal histopathological changes and a significant decrease in iNOS expression of the intestinal tissue were observed in

groups treated by CH loaded with full dose of ABZ compared to control group

Copro-antigen detection versus direct methods for the diagnosis of Giardia Lamblia in patients from the national liver institute

In this study a commercially available immunoenzymatic assay to detect G. lamblia specific copro-antigen was evaluated. A total of 90 stool samples were tested. Diagnosis of giardiasis by ELISA for copro-Ag detection was positive in 46 [51.1%] patients whereas by direct stool analysis after formol ether concentration G. lamblia was detected in 38 [42.2%] patients only. ELISA technique for detection of Giardia copro-antigen had a sensitivity of 97.3% and a specificity of 82.6% with PPV of 80.4% and a NPV of 97.7%

Humoral and cell mediated immune responses in scabietic patients

Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses were studied in forty scabietic patients and twenty healthy control individuals. The parameter findings for quantitative assessment of humoral immune response by the single radial immune diffusion technique indicated that IgA was significantly decreased, IgG and IgM were significantly increased while there was no statistical difference in the level of IgE, C[3] and C[4] compared to the normal control group. The cell mediated immune response was estimated in vivo by the intradermal test. It showed insignificant decrease in the number of positive reactors versus the control group. The macrophage migration inhibition test as an in vitro index for determining the cell mediated immune response was significantly diminished. This study indicates that humoral and cell-mediated immune responses play an important role in the pathogenesis of scabies