efficacy of three medicinal plants: garlic, ginger and mirazid and a chemical drug metronidazole against Cryptosporidium Parvum. I- immunological response

Cryptosporidisis parvum is a zoonotic protozoan parasite infects intestinal epithelial cells causing a major health problem for man and animals. Experimentally the immunologic mediated elimination of C. parvum requires CD4+ T cells and IFN-Gamma. But, the innate immune responses also have a significant protective role in both man and animals. the mucosal immune response to C. parvum in C57BL/6 neonatal and GKO mice shows a concomitant Th1 and Th2 cytokine mRNA expression, with a crucial role for IFN-Gamma in the resolution of the infection.NK cells and IFN-Gamma have been shown to be important components in immunity in T and B cell-deficient mice, but IFN-Gamma-dependent resistance is demonstrated in alymphocytic mice. Epithelial cells may play a vital role in immunity as once infected these cells have increased expression of inflammatory chemokines and cytokines and demonstrate anti-infection killing mechanisms. C. parvum immunological response was used to evaluate the efficacy of anti-cryptospori- disis agents of Garlic, Ginger, Mirazid and Metronidazole in experimentally infected mice

Comparison of Cryptosporidium parvum development in various cell lines for screening in vitro drug testing.

This study describes the development of Cryptosporidium parvum in MDCK, MA-104, Hep-2 and Vero cell lines. Differences in susceptibility, infectivity, and the methodology of excystation were determined. Various solutions were considered to determine the factors which enhanced the excystation (eg with and without sodium hypochlorite, trypsin or sodium taurocholate). It was shown that the sporozoites could be excysted in media either with or without trypsin and sodium taurocholate, but the number of sporozoites in the latter solution was less than the former one. Only oocysts digested by sodium hypochlorite and trypsin can enter the culture cells. Numerous meronts and oocysts were demonstrated and persisted for 9 days. Asexual stages were not observed in MA-104. Only few oocysts could be detected 1-3 days post-inoculation. There was a significant difference between the number of oocysts, which invaded MDCK, MA-104, and Hep-2 cells. MDCK gave the highest susceptibility to oocyst invasion among the three cell lines and asexual stages were also found. Among the 25 isolates, which had been cultivated, 23 isolates could infect MDCK and Hep-2. Only 2 isolates could not infect the MDCK cell. These 2 isolates could infect the Vero cell and yielded high numbers of trophozoites. Praziquantel (PZQ), doxycycline, and paromomycin (PRM) were tested on the infecting parasites. The drugs were added either with the inoculum or 24 hours after inoculation. None of them was effective, including PRM, which had been previously reported as effective.

Efficacy of Azithromycin, Praziquantel and Mirazid in treatment of cryptosporidiosis in school children

The study was conducted at a primary school in Abis 8 Village. Eighty- eight children aged 11 years participated in the present work. After fecal examination, 43 cases were found infected with Cryptosporidium. The mean oocysts number per high power field [HPF] ranged 1.6-48 oocysts/HPF. Azithromycin, praziquantel [PZQ] and mirazid were given to 13, 16 and 14 infected children, respectively. Three weeks after treatment, azithromycin and praziquantel gave cure rates of 91% and 56.2%, respectively, with a% reduction of oocysts in stools of 99% for azithromycin and 71.5% for PZQ. Mirazid was not effective. All the three drugs were well tolerated. The study showed that azithromycin is highly effective in the treatment of children with cryptosporidiosis and that PZQ decreases the infection rate and intensity

Aminosidene sulphate in experimental cryptosporidiosis

The present study aimed at investigating the efficiency of a recent antibiotic aminosidine sulfate [Gabbroral] in experimental cryptosporidiosis. The course of infection was studied when the drug was given early before the infection, and late during the infection both parasitologically and histopathologically. When the drug was given early, the results were satisfactory, with a significant reduction of size, number and pathological changes of the parasites in the stool and in ileal sections of infected mice. However, the drug had no effect when given late during the infection