Green-Ross Nicole T, Sharma Homa Nath, Napier Audrey, Robertson Boakai K, Green Robert L, Abugri Daniel A
Department of Biological Sciences, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL 36104, USA.
Microbiology Ph.D. Program, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL 36104, USA.
Antibiotics (Basel). 2025 Mar 24;14(4):336. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics14040336.
Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease caused by . The parasite infection in humans continues to rise due to an increasing seroprevalence rate in domestic and wild warm-blooded animals that serve as a major reservoir of the parasite. There are fewer drugs available for the treatment of toxoplasmosis. However, these drugs are limited in efficacy against tachyzoites and bradyzoites. Also, there are clinical side effects and geographical barriers to their use, especially in immunocompromised patients, children, and pregnant women. Tannins, a class of natural products, are known to have antimicrobial properties. However, little is known about the effects of Corilagin (CG) and Punicalagin (PU), which are classified as tannins, on growth and their possible mechanism of action in vitro. We hypothesize that CG and PU could inhibit growth in vitro and cause mitochondria membrane disruption via oxidative stress. Here, we investigated the anti- activity of the two named tannins using a fluorescent-based reporter assay. The 50% effective concentrations (EC) values for CG and PU that inhibited parasites growth in vitro were determined to be 3.09 and 19.33 µM, respectively. Pyrimethamine (PY) was used as a standard control which gave an EC value of 0.25 µM. Interestingly, CG and PU were observed to cause high reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial superoxide (MitoSOX) production in tachyzoites. This resulted in a strong mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) disruption in tachyzoites. Therefore, the possible mechanism(s) of action of CG and PU against is associated with the disruption of the mitochondria redox biology. Thus, the high ROS and MitoSOX produced as a result of these compounds created high oxidative stress, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction.
弓形虫病是一种由……引起的人畜共患病。由于作为该寄生虫主要宿主的家养和野生温血动物血清阳性率不断上升，人类中的寄生虫感染持续增加。可用于治疗弓形虫病的药物较少。然而，这些药物对速殖子和缓殖子的疗效有限。此外，它们在使用上存在临床副作用和地理障碍，尤其是在免疫功能低下的患者、儿童和孕妇中。单宁是一类天然产物，已知具有抗菌特性。然而，对于被归类为单宁的柯里拉京（CG）和石榴皮苷（PU）对……生长的影响及其体外可能的作用机制知之甚少。我们假设CG和PU可以在体外抑制……生长，并通过氧化应激导致线粒体膜破坏。在此，我们使用基于荧光的报告基因检测法研究了这两种单宁的抗……活性。CG和PU在体外抑制……寄生虫生长的50%有效浓度（EC）值分别确定为3.09和19.33μM。乙胺嘧啶（PY）用作标准对照，其EC值为0.25μM。有趣的是，观察到CG和PU会导致速殖子中产生高活性氧（ROS）和线粒体超氧化物（MitoSOX）。这导致……速殖子中线粒体膜电位（MMP）强烈破坏。因此，CG和PU对……的可能作用机制与线粒体氧化还原生物学的破坏有关。因此，这些化合物产生的高ROS和MitoSOX造成了高氧化应激，导致线粒体功能障碍。
