Toxoplasmosis is a cosmopolitan parasitic
disease that impacts enormous
population sector. In this work we
investigated, the antitoxoplamic therapeutic
effect of one synthetic drug;
nitazoxanide (NTZ) and another
agent of plant origin; Zingiber officinale
(ginger) as adjuvant to the
traditional antotoxoplamic drugs
(pyrimethamine & sulphadiazine) on
experimental murine toxoplasmosis
(Me 49 avirulant strain). Animals
were classified into 7 groups; G I: Non
-infected, non- treated (normal control),
GII: Infected non-treated mice
(infected control), GIII: Infected &
treated by a combination of pyrimethamine
& sulphadiazine, (drug
control), Group IV: Infected & treated
by Zingiber officienale ,GV: Infected
& treated by nitazoxanide, GVI: Infected
& treated by combination of
Zingiber officienale and pyrimethamine
& sulphadiazine, Group VII: Infected
& treated by combination of Zingiber
officienale & nitazoxanide. Brain cyst
counting and assessing histopathological
changes using heamatoxylin and
eosin (H & E) were utilized to evaluate
the efficacy of tested drugs. In the present
study, Group VI (treated by
Zingiber officienale + pyrimethamine
& sulphadiazine) achieved the best
results among all studied groups as the
reduction rate of the mean brain cyst
count was 58.8% The corresponding
measurements for other groups were
lower than group VI as following:
50.9%, 28%, 38% and 40.6% for
groups III, IV, V, and VII respectively.
Histopathological studies showed
obvious correlation with the results of
brain cyst counts. These results denote
that nitazoxanide could be an acceptable,
standardized, characterized, already
FDA approved and commercially
available substitute to traditional
antitoxiplasmic synthetic drug. Also
Zingiber officienale would be a safe
and beneficial adjuvant treatment that
potentiates the antitoxoplasmic action
of the traditional treatment of toxoplasmosis.
More studies are needed to
address the dose response relationship
of both NTZ and Zingiber officienale
before using them for treatment of
chronic toxoplasmosis. |
