Enhancement of the anti-schistosomal activity of praziquantel by propolis and/or royal jelly

ABSTRACT

Due to the emergence of resistance to anti-schistosomal drugs, the present study aimed to explore the antischistosomal activity of the natural products Propolis [PP] and Royal Jelly [RJ] to be used alone or in combination with traditional antibilharzial drug such as Praziquantel [PZQ]. Mice received PP at 8 and 16 mg /mouse/day, RJ at 0.3 and 0.6 mg/mouse/day or PZQ at 0.4 mg/mouse/day in addition to their combinations [PP + RJ] or [PP+RJ+PZQ] using the same low and high dose levels before and after cercarial infection. Antischistosomal activity was evaluated by measuring different parameters including either biochemical [SGOT, SGPT, GGT, albumin and bilirubin total and direct], parasitological [Oogram, liver egg load, worm distribution and burden with hatchability study], antischistosomal antibody titre [ASA titer] and histopathological examination of liver tissue. Inspite of their low antischistosomal activity, PP and RJ in a dose dependent manner induced significant liver protection [p < 0.01] as indicated by reversal of the above parameters tested. Similar effects were obtained using combined doses of PP, RJ and PZQ with reduction rate of 67% and 74% of liver enzymes and worm burden; respectively, compared to the reduction rates of the standard drug PZQ alone 48% and 65%, respectively. Thus the anti-schistosomal activity of PZQ could be augmented by the natural products Propolis and /or Royal Jelly