Role of magnetic Field in the Healing of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Lesions in Mice.

Leishmaniasisis an important tropical cutaneous disease that is endemic in the Middle East, including Iran. There is no consensus on the appropriate therapeutic method, dose, and duration for this disease. The pentavalent antimonial compounds are the first-line treatments of leishmaniasis. With regard to the resistance of this disease against drugs and its treatment failure in some patients, the present study was conducted to investigate the role of alternating magnetic field (AMF) in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis lesionsin mice. To this end, 45 male Balb/c mice with the age of 3-4 weeks and weight of 18-20 g were purchased from the Pasteur Institute, Tehran, Iran, to be investigated. The mice were infected with Leishmania promastigote (2×106) injected in the upper end of the tail.After 3 weeks, the animals were screened for developing lesions. Finally, 15 mice were selected and randomly divided into three equal groups of positive control (treated with the standard drug), negative control (without treatment), and experimental (subjected to AMF at a frequency of 50 kHz for 30 min on a daily basis for 4 weeks). The subjects were followed up for 4 weeks, and the size of their lesions was measured weekly. The data were analyzed by repeated measures test in SPSS software (version 20) at a p-value of < 0.05. There was no significant difference between the experimental and positive control groups (P>0.05). However, the negative control group showed a significant difference with the positive control and experimental groups (P=0.0001). As the findings indicated, AMF was seemingly able to decrease the size of lesions to the same extent as the standard drug. Consequently, AMF could be suggested as a noninvasive and complementary tool against cutaneous leishmaniasis. However, it is required to perform more studies to address different aspects of this domain.

Subcutaneous Hydatid Cyst in Laboratory Mice: Is it a Suitable Method for Evaluating Therapeutic Agents against Hydatid Cyst?

Hydatid disease is an economic and public health concern in many countries. Currently, surgery is the main treatment option for hydatid disease. In the surgical treatment of hydatidosis, the use of scolicidal agents is very important due to inactivating live protoscoleces and preventing the recurrence of infection. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate newscolicidal agents and novel medications with higher safety and efficacy. In the previous in vitro studies, the scolicidal effects of the methanolic extracts and aromatic water of Zataria multiflora (Z. multiflora) have been demonstrated. Consequently, in this study, the impact of the nanoemulsion of Z. multiflora essential oil on subcutaneous hydatid cysts was compared with albendazole (ABZ). Fifty laboratory male mice were inoculated with 300 viable protoscoleces subcutaneously on the two sides of the abdomen. Following five months of infection, the remaining infected mice (n=42) were allocated into two treatment and one control (without treatment) groups containing fourteen animals each. Group A received ABZ at the dose of 50 mg/kg for 60 days, group B received the nanoemulsions of Z. multiflora at the dose of 50 mg/kg in drinking water for 60 days, and group C was considered as the control group. All the infected mice were euthanized and necropsied two months post-intervention. Afterwards, the cysts were cautiously collected and their number, size, and weight were compared between the mice of different groups. The mean number of hydatid cysts indicated that the nanoemulsion of Z. multiflora essence had a relative superiority to ABZ. On the other hand, the therapeutic effect of ABZ was higher than the nanoemulsion of Z. multiflora essential oil in terms of the mean weight and mean size of hydatid cysts. However, no significant difference was observed between the groups (P>0.5). Overall, the number, weight, and size of cysts were not significantly different between the groups in this investigation. The lack of satisfactory therapeutic results in this study might be due to the location of hydatid cysts in the subcutaneous space.

The prevalence of toxoplasmosis in Imam Reza Hospital blood bank samples, Tehran, Iran.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of toxoplasma gondii (T.g) infection in blood donors has been poorly studied. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of acute and chronic toxoplasmosis in blood products. METHODS: A total of 223 blood products (101 fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and 122 packed cells (PC)) in Imam Reza hospital blood bank, Tehran, Iran were tested for specific T.g antibodies (IgG and IgM) by ELISA method. Positive IgG anti-T.g samples were further tested for IgM anti-T.g. A positive IgG test with the negative and positive IgM test was interpreted as a chronic and acute toxoplasmosis respectively. RESULTS: Of 223 samples 38.6% and 0.45% were positive for IgG anti-T.g and IgM anti-T.g levels respectively. Therefore, one and 85 samples were involved acute and chronic toxoplasmosis respectively. Twenty-six of fresh frozen plasma samples were positive for IgG anti-T.g and one of them was positive for IgM anti-T.g. Sixty packed cell samples were positive for IgG anti-T.g. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that there were chronic and acute toxoplasmosis in blood products and the prevalence of toxoplasmosis especially chronic form was high. Therefore screening of blood for T.g antibodies may be considered.