Schistosomiasis is a serious and neglected tropical illness with a negative influence on human health. It's treated with praziquantel (PZQ), which has been linked to resistance and reinfections. As a result, new anti-schistosomal medications are desperately needed. Medicinal plants, particularly crude preparations of medicinal herbs, have a potential treatment against schistosomiasis. Uncaria (U.) tomentosa is a rainforest plant native to the Amazon and Central America. It is commonly used in traditional medicine due to its immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects. This study aimed to compare both antiparasitic and hepatoprotective efficacy of U. tomentosa bark extract to PZQ in mice infected with Schistosoma mansoni. To evaluate its antiparasitic qualities, worm load, egg count, granuloma counts, and diameters were measured. Also, liver tissues were immune stained using nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-B), and the levels of the inflammatory proteins interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, and nitric oxide (NO) in the serum were assessed. U. tomentosa had a substantial impact on granuloma diameter but without significant impact on worm load, tissues egg load, or granuloma numbers. It has a good hepatoprotective effects through improvement of liver enzymes and reduction of NF-.
Cryptosporidiosis is a considerable cause of global diarrhea-related morbidity and mortality, especially among children and immunocompromised individuals. In addition, various studies suggested a link between cryptosporidiosis and cancer. There is no fully effective treatment or vaccination for cryptosporidiosis. Moreover, these highly infectious oocysts are usually resistant to the routinely used disinfection measures, and subsequently repeated waterborne outbreaks occur. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) are widely used safe material that show good antimicrobial properties. The study investigated the efficacy of ZnONPs in disinfecting water Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts.Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts were incubated with different concentrations of ZnONPs or chlorine for one hour. Then, we further investigated the ability of the ZnONPs-pretreated oocysts to induce pathology in experimental animals. Evaluation was performed regarding onset of oocyst shedding, oocyst score, degree of intestinal pathology and apoptosis. Our results showed that the oocyst pretreated with 90 and 120 µg/ml ZnONPs concentrations had the latest onset of oocyst shedding and the lowest shedding scores. Moreover, they presented the mildest degrees of pathology and apoptosis.
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