Publications of Faculty of Medicine:PHARMACOLOGICAL PROFILE OF NHN VACCINE, A CHEMICALLY MODIFIED BIOMPHALARIA ALEXANDRINA SNAIL ANTIGEN: Abstract

Title:
PHARMACOLOGICAL PROFILE OF NHN VACCINE, A CHEMICALLY MODIFIED BIOMPHALARIA ALEXANDRINA SNAIL ANTIGEN
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Abstract:

The development of a vaccine that brings schistosomiasis under immunological control has been the goal of many investigators all over the world for decades. This study characterizes the pharmacological profile of the NHN vaccine, a newly proposed chistosomiasis vaccine formulated by a group of Egyptian investiptors in the National Research Center and contains a chemically modified Biomphalaria Alexandrina Snail antigen. The effects of the vaccine on isolated tissue preparatiens (mammalian heart, rabbit's intestine, toad's rectus abdominis muscle) and on the blood pressure of conscious rats were determined. Possible changes in biochemical parameters related to the liver and kidney functions were also detected. Thus, total plasma proteins, albumin, bilirubin level, liver enzymes such alkaline phosphatase, SGOT and SGPT, plasma uric acid, urea and creatinine were all monitored. The effects of the vaccine on reducing the worm burden, inducing body immune response through raising the IgG titre and on reducing the incidence of pathological changes in organs from mice vaccinated then infected compared to mice infected without vaccination (prophylactic effect) and also in mice infected then vaccinated (curative effect) were all investigated.