Toxoplasmosis is an immunologically complex disease, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Although there are several therapeutic regimens for such disease, the majority of them have many drawbacks. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to improve the current regimen in an effort to achieve a well-tolerated therapy while also enhancing the host immune response. Famous for their immunomodulatory effect, Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Lactobacillus fermentum probiotics were chosen to be evaluated in this study as an adjuvant therapy against the virulent RH Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) strain. Experimental mice were divided into control and treated groups. The control group was further subdivided into two groups: group I: 10 uninfected mice and group II: 20 infected untreated mice. The treated experimental group was subdivided into three groups (20 mice each); group III: sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (SMZ-TMP) treated, group IV: probiotics treated, and group V: SMZ-TMP combined with probiotics. The results obtained revealed that combined therapy increased survival rate and time up to 95% and 16 days, respectively, with an 82% reduction of tachyzoites and marked distortion, as detected by the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Additionally, combined therapy alleviated the severity and the extent of the inflammatory cells’ infiltration, thereby reducing hepatocyte degeneration. Intriguingly, serum IF-γ level showed a significant increase to 155.92 ± 10.12 ng/L with combined therapy, reflecting the immunological role of the combined therapy. The current results revealed that probiotics have a high adjuvant potential in alleviating the impact of toxoplasmosis. Using probiotics as a synergistic treatment to modulate conventional therapy in systemic toxoplasmosis may gain popularity due to their low cost and current availability.
Toxoplasma gondii infection has a worldwide distribution. Pyrimethamine (PYR) is the most effective drug for treatment of toxoplasmosis. Unfortunately, it has low oral bioavailability which requires an increase in the dose that results in increased its side effects. Nanostructures showed promising potential to overcome this problem. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of intraperitoneal injection (IP) of PYR-loaded niosomes compared to PYR in the treatment of acute toxoplasmosis in experimentally infected mice. The study employed 240 mice that were divided into groups. Group I included Ia (20 uninfected untreated), Ib (20 infected untreated), Ic (non-infected and injected with placebo niosomes) and Id (20 non-infected mice injected with dimethyl sulfoxide). Groups II and III (a & b/each, 40 mice/each) were treated with PYR and PYR-loaded niosomes respectively in doses of 5 or 10 mg/kg/day for four successive days. Then all mice were sacrificed and their peritoneal fluids were examined by the scanning electron microscopy. Livers, spleens and brains were used for parasite count and for histopathological examination. This study showed that the niosomes improved the efficacy of PYR in the treatment of acute toxoplasmosis in mice. It was evidenced by increased the survival rate, decreased tachyzoites count, morphological changes of the tachyzoites and decreased inflammation. Niosomal PYR was effective at low dose with its efficacy being even greater than that of the solution even at high dose. It was concluded that PYR-niosomes formulation is a powerful alternative for reduction of PYR dose and its side effects.
K e y w o r d sToxoplasma gondii.
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