A potential herbal therapeutic for trichinellosis

Asmaa M El-Kady; Iman A M Abdel-Rahman; Eman Sayed; Majed H Wakid; Hussah M Alobaid; Khalil Mohamed; Eman Abdullah Alshehri; Hayam Elshazly; Wafa Abdullah I Al-Megrin; Furhan Iqbal; Hatem A Elshabrawy; Ashraf G Timsah

doi:10.3389/fvets.2022.970327

A potential herbal therapeutic for trichinellosis

Front Vet Sci. 2022 Aug 23:9:970327. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.970327. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.
² Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.
³ Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Special Infectious Agents Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health and Health Informatics, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences-Scientific Departments, Qassim University, Buraidah, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni Suef, Egypt.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Adbulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹¹ Zoology Division, Institute of Pure and Applied Biology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
¹² Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Sam Houston State University, Conroe, TX, United States.
¹³ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Baha University, Al Baha, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁴ Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, New Damietta City, Egypt.

Abstract

Background: Trichinellosis is a helminthic disease caused by Trichinella spiralis via the ingestion of raw or undercooked meat of infected animals. Current estimates indicate that 11 million humans have trichinellosis, worldwide. The effective use of anti-trichinella medications is limited by side effects and resistance which highlight the critical need for safe and effective drugs, particularly those derived from medicinal plants. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the ethanolic extract of Artemisia annua (A. annua) in treatment of experimentally induced trichinellosis.

Materials and methods: Trichinellosis was induced experimentally in male 6-8 weeks BALB/c mice. BALB/c mice were divided into four groups, 10 mice each. One group was left uninfected and untreated, whereas three groups were infected with T. spiralis. One infected group of mice was left untreated (negative control) while the remaining two infected groups received either 300 mg/kg of the ethanolic extract of A. annua or 50 mg/kg of albendazole (positive control). All treatments started from the third day post-infection (dpi) for 3 successive days. All animals were sacrificed on the 7th dpi for evaluation of treatment efficacy.

Results: Our findings showed that A. annua treatment reduced the T. spiralis adult-worm count in the intestine of infected animals. Moreover, treatment with A. annua restored the normal intestinal architecture, reduced edema, alleviated inflammation as demonstrated by reduced inflammatory infiltrate and expression of TGF-β in intestinal tissues of A. annua-treated animals compared to infected untreated animals.

Conclusions: Our findings show that A. annua extract is effective in treating experimentally induced trichinellosis which highlight the therapeutic potential of A. annua for intestinal trichinellosis.

Keywords: Artemisia annua; T. spiralis; TGF-β; goblet cells; trichinellosis.