Fahmy Mennat-Elrahman A, Esmat Marwa, Badawi Manal, Abdel Shafi Iman R
Medical Parasitology Department, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute (TBRI), Giza, Egypt.
Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Misr University for Science and Technology, 6th October City, Giza, Egypt.
Trop Anim Health Prod. 2025 May 7;57(4):209. doi: 10.1007/s11250-025-04429-0.
Trichinella spiralis is a parasitic nematode with a special life cycle. Both adults and larvae live in two different niches in the same host (intestinal and muscular). The parasite is known to manipulate the immune system of the host to be able to survive. One of the pathways the parasite modulates is the programmed death 1/ programmed death ligand 1 (PD1/PDL1), a pathway important to maintain the immune homeostasis during chronic infections and cancers. Albendazole (ABZ) shows anti-trichinellosis efficacy, especially against the intestinal phase of the infection. In an attempt to discover a drug that would enhance the efficacy of ABZ against the muscular phase, we used 40 CD1 Swiss-Albino male mice divided into 5 groups: normal, infected, infected ABZ-treated, infected Silymarin (SM)-treated, and the infected-treated with a combination group. After euthanasia, the number of diaphragmatic larvae was estimated in the infected and the infected-treated groups. In addition, the tongues and hearts of all mice were subjected to histopathological and immunohistochemical processing and evaluation. Monotherapy groups showed a significant reduction of both larval count and PD1 local expression compared to the infected-only group, however, neither ABZ nor SM alone could reduce the inflammation accompanying infection. The most significant improvements were recorded in the combined treatment group with a reduction rate of 69.95%, a significant reduction of inflammatory infiltrates (p < 0.05), and significant modulation of PDL1 local expression (p < 0.05). So, Silibinin (the major active ingredient of SM) showed anti-trichinellosis activity and enhanced the efficacy of ABZ against the muscular phase of the infection.
旋毛虫是一种具有特殊生命周期的寄生线虫。成虫和幼虫生活在同一宿主的两个不同生态位（肠道和肌肉）中。已知该寄生虫会操纵宿主的免疫系统以实现存活。寄生虫调节的途径之一是程序性死亡1/程序性死亡配体1（PD1/PDL1），这是在慢性感染和癌症期间维持免疫稳态的重要途径。阿苯达唑（ABZ）显示出抗旋毛虫病的功效，尤其是对感染的肠道阶段。为了寻找一种能增强ABZ对肌肉阶段感染疗效的药物，我们将40只CD1瑞士白化雄性小鼠分为5组：正常组、感染组、感染后用ABZ治疗组、感染后用水飞蓟宾（SM）治疗组以及感染后联合治疗组。安乐死后，对感染组和感染治疗组的膈肌幼虫数量进行了估计。此外，对所有小鼠的舌头和心脏进行了组织病理学和免疫组织化学处理及评估。与仅感染组相比，单药治疗组的幼虫数量和PD1局部表达均显著降低，然而，单独使用ABZ或SM都不能减轻伴随感染的炎症。联合治疗组的改善最为显著，幼虫减少率为69.95%，炎症浸润显著减少（p<0.05），PDL1局部表达显著调节（p<0.05）。因此，水飞蓟宾（SM的主要活性成分）显示出抗旋毛虫病活性，并增强了ABZ对感染肌肉阶段的疗效。
