Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.
Zoonotic Diseases Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt.
Exp Parasitol. 2022 Dec;243:108412. doi: 10.1016/j.exppara.2022.108412. Epub 2022 Oct 27.
Cryptosporidiosis is a crucial zoonotic global health concern which can be treated by alternative medicinal plants extracts.
The study was carried out to assess the therapeutic efficacy of Citrus sinensis peel ethanolic extract on Cryptosporidium-infected mice.
Two doses of Citrus sinensis extract; high dose (30 mg/kg) and low dose (15 mg/kg) were investigated compared to the common commercial drug nitazoxanide (NTZ). Assessment of the extract was carried out by calculating oocysts count in fecal samples, in addition to histopathological and electron microscopic examination of intestinal mucosa..
There was a statistically significant reduction in the percentage of oocyst shedding more in high dose than low dose Citrus-treated mice group till negligible numbers of oocysts were found at day 22nd post infection. Histopathologically, the intestinal tissues from high dose Citrus-treated group showed improvement of the pathological changes, the villi retained their normal appearance with minimal inflammatory cells in comparison to infected control mice groups. Also, ultra-structurally, the high dose Citrus-treated mice showed few Cryptosporidium trophozoites, while moderate number of parasitic stages and mucous in the low dose Citrus-treated mice, and large numbers of parasitic stages with sever mucous in the control infected non-treated mice epithelium.
Our study established for the first time that Citrus sinensis is a promising natural candidate that could be efficiently used for developing of new anti-cryptospordial drugs.
隐孢子虫病是一种重要的人畜共患全球健康问题，可以用替代药用植物提取物进行治疗。
本研究旨在评估柑橘皮乙醇提取物对感染隐孢子虫的小鼠的治疗效果。
研究了柑橘皮提取物的两个剂量；高剂量（30mg/kg）和低剂量（15mg/kg），并与常用的商业药物硝唑尼特（NTZ）进行了比较。通过计算粪便样本中的卵囊数，以及对肠黏膜进行组织病理学和电子显微镜检查，对提取物进行了评估。
高剂量柑橘处理组的卵囊脱落百分比有统计学显著降低，比低剂量柑橘处理组更多，直到感染后第 22 天发现几乎没有卵囊。组织病理学上，高剂量柑橘处理组的肠组织显示出病变的改善，绒毛保持正常外观，与感染对照组相比，炎症细胞最少。此外，超微结构显示，高剂量柑橘处理组的隐孢子虫滋养体数量较少，而低剂量柑橘处理组的寄生虫阶段和粘液数量适中，感染对照组未治疗的上皮组织中寄生虫阶段数量较多，粘液严重。
我们的研究首次证实，柑橘是一种很有前途的天然候选药物，可有效地用于开发新的抗隐孢子虫药物。
