ABSTRACT
Purpose: Praziquantel (PZQ) is a well-known drug accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the treatment of schistosomiasis. It shows poor efficiency in patients during the earliest infection phases. Therefore, the search for new alternative drugs was the intention of many researchers. Methods: In the current study, the effect of different concentrations (ranging from 0.07-10 µg∕mL) of calcium silicate (CS) containing 5% copper oxide [CS-5%CuO] on golden hamster infected by Schistosoma mansoni and Schistosoma haematobium (Egyptian strains) was evaluated in both in vitro and in vivo. To the best of our knowledge, this is a novel study in investigating the efficiency of CS-5%CuO against both strains of schistosomes. The worms of S. mansoni and S. haematobium were tested in RPMI-1640 medium in vitro. Results: The results declare that CS-5% CuO exhibited excellent anti-schistosomal activities on both in vitro and in vivo experiments for both Egyptians Schistosoma strains. The most potential effect of the CS-5% CuO was exhibited after 6 h by 10 µg∕mL with significant activity of (P value = 0.001). Conclusion: Therefore, CS-5%CuO may become an innovative treatment for the schistosomiasis.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Different compositions of copper oxide (CuO)-doped calcium silicate clusters were used to treat the cancer cells. Methods: The influence of CuO content on the morphology, drug delivering ability, physicochemical properties and cytotoxicity was investigated. Results: The microcrystalline structure revealed the decrement of the size from (20-36 nm) to (5-7 nm) depending on the copper content percentages. Drug delivering ability of doxycycline hyclate (Dox) was down regulated from 58% to 28%in the presence of the CuO. The inclusion of CuO and Dox didn't show any remarkable changes on the physicochemical properties of the CuO-doped calcium silicate nanoparticles. Conclusion: The CuO-doped calcium silicate sample (5 weight %) exhibited great cytotoxicity against the tested cell lines compared to the CuO-free sample. CuO-doped materials displayed significant anticancer effect; this sheds light on its implication in the treatment of cancer.
