Session: OS123 Issues concerning treatment of malaria, echinococcosis and cryptosporidiosis

Category: 7c. Antiparasitic drugs & treatment

24 April 2017, 11:30 - 11:40 OS0592

Comparison of the therapeutic effects of anti-Cryptosporidium nano nitazoxanide (NZT) with free form of this drug in neonatal rats

Mohammad Fallah*1, Fruzan Sedighi2, Roghayeh Abbasalipourkabi2, Amirhossein Maghsood2

1University of Medical Sciences; Parasitology&mycology

2Hamadan University of Medical Sciences

Background: Cryptosporidiosis is a parasitic disease caused by Cryptosporidium, a protozoan parasite with worldwide distribution. Infection is through fecal-oral route, direct or indirect contact or food or water-borne. The treatment of disease caused by this protozoan is difficult and the anti-parasitic agents are not completely effective on the parasite. Purpose of this study was the encapsulation of Nitazoxanide in solid lipid nano- particles (SLN) and, investigate its anti-Cryptosporidium effect and compare with free form of this drug in the neonatal rat.

Material/methods: Nitazoxanide was encapsulated by HPH method with 2 mg/Kg concentration in SLN nanoparticles. The oocysts were collected from stool (diarrhea) samples of young calves and purified by flotation method in sucrose solution (55%). A total of 72 Wistar neonatal rats (2-3 days) were categorized in 6 groups, each 12 rats which include four infected groups treated by free drug, encapsulated nano drug, colloidal carriers without drug (SLN) and olive oil, an infected control group and a healthy control group which received only phosphate buffer. 3-day-old Wistar rats were inoculated orally with 105 Cryptosporidium parvum oocyts. All rats were euthanized by cervical dislocation on day 9 postinfection; intestine of each rat were put in 5 cc PBS and were homogenized by rotor device and the homogenized material was passed through a sieve. To quantify oocyst shedding, after removing fats, floatation were done by 55% sucrose solution, and the numbers of oocyts on each sample were counted by hemocytometer slide

Results: Treatment by Nitazoxanide significantly decreased the number of parasites in treatment groups. This decrease at day 6 was more than day 3. Nano Nitazoxanide had more effects on parasites than free drug. This difference at day 3 of treatment was not significant (p= 0.182) but at day 6, it was statistically significant (p< 0.001) Conclusions: Using nano-Nitazoxanide could be a more effective way to treat Cryptosporidium infections.