An in vivo appraisal of Punica granatum peel extract's ultrastructural effect on cystic echinococcosis in mice.

In the past decade, interest has significantly increased regarding the medicinal and nutritional benefits of pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel. This study examined the effects of using pomegranate peel extract (PGE) alone and in combination with albendazole (ABZ) on ultrastructural and immunological changes in cystic echinococcosis in laboratory-infected mice. Results revealed that the smallest hydatid cyst size and weight (0.48 ± 0.47mm, 0.17 ± 0.18 gm) with the highest drug efficacy (56.2%) was detected in the PGE + ABZ group, which also exhibited marked histopathological improvement. Ultrastructural changes recorded by transmission electron microscopy including fragmentation of the nucleus, glycogen depletion, and multiple lysosomes in vacuolated cytoplasm were more often observed in PGE + ABZ group. IFN-γ levels were significantly increased in the group treated with ABZ, with a notable reduction following PGE treatment, whether administered alone or in combination with ABZ. Thus, PGE enhanced the therapeutic efficiency of ABZ, with improvement in histopathological and ultrastructural changes.

Therapeutic efficacy of proton pump inhibitor (omeprazole) on cryptosporidiosis parvum in immunosuppressed experimental mice.

Cryptosporidiosis is one of the most frequent food and water-borne diseases. The disease might be life-threatening in immunosuppressed patients. Unfortunately, the only approved drug, nitazoxanide, is with variable efficacies, particularly in malnourished children and immunocompromised patients. Therefore, there is a need to discover an alternative treatment that could be achieved by targeting the metabolic pathways. One of the important enzymes in the glycolysis pathway of C. parvum is triosephosphate isomerase, which could be hindered by the proton pump inhibitor (PPI) omeprazole. In this study, omeprazole was repurposed against C. parvum infection in experimentally immunosuppressed mice. This study was conducted on five mice groups (n = 10). Group I (Normal Control), group II (Infected Control): Mice were infected orally with 1 × 105 C. parvum oocysts on the 15th day of DEX induced immunosuppression. Group III (NTZ-treated): infected and treated by NTZ. Group IV (Omeprazole-treated), and lastly, Group V (NTZ + Omeprazole-treated). The result obtained with omeprazole alone was better than nitazoxanide regarding oocyst shedding reduction percentages (84.9% & 56.1%, respectively). Also, it was better regarding restoration of histopathological and ultrastructural architectures, improvement of liver enzymes (alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase) and renal functions (urea and creatinine), and the reduction of C. parvum triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) gene expression by RT-PCR. However, the best results were obtained with the combined treatment. Hence, omeprazole could be considered a novel drug option to treat this life-threatening parasitic infection either alone or combined with NTZ, especially in immunosuppressed patients.

Evaluation of the therapeutic efficacy of albendazole-loaded silver nanoparticles against Echinococcus granulosus infection in experimental mice.

The drug of choice for treatment of hydatid disease, albendazole (ABZ) is a poorly water-soluble drug; thus, enhancing its solubility is required. Among metal nanoparticles (NPs), silver (Ag) NPs showed antimicrobial efficacies. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate nanosilver particles (Ag NPs) free or combined with albendazole against Echinococcus granulosus infection in vivo. In this study, besides the normal control group (GI) (n = 5), 80 mice were infected with 2000 viable protoscoleces intraperitoneally then divided equally (n = 20) into the infected control (GII), ABZ-treated (GIII), nanosilver-treated (GIV) and ABZ-loaded-Ag NPs-treated (GV) groups. On the 90th post-infection day, treatment was started and continued for 8 weeks then the experiment was terminated. Each mouse was subjected to measurement of hydatid cysts' sizes and weights, serum IFN-γ, liver enzymes; histopathological and transmission electron microscopy studies. In all treated groups, there were significant reductions of hydatid cysts' sizes and weights; however, the highest efficacy rate (63.9%) was detected in group V associated with obvious ultrastructure alterations of the cysts. The liver tissues of group II showed intense granulomatous reactions, congestion, fibrosis, necrosis and steatosis associated with significant increases in serum IFN-γ and liver enzymes. Interestingly, the best antiparasitic effect and the most significant reduction of IFN-γ towards the normal values were found in GV. Moreover, Ag NPs had reduced the toxic effects of ABZ such as necrosis, steatosis and the elevated serum liver enzymes. Therefore, loading ABZ on Ag NPs could be a potential method to improve ABZ efficacy against hydatid disease.