Artemether (ART), the methylated derivative of artemisinin, is an efficacious antimalarial drug that also displays antischistosomal properties. This study was designed to evaluate the immunomodulatory action of a single intramuscular dose (50 mg/kg body weight) of ART in comparison with PZQ treatment (42 days PI). ART administration was 7, 14, 21 and 45 days PI. ART effect was studied parasitologically, histopathologically and immunologically. It was found that maximum effect was reached when ART treatment interfered with 14 or 21 days old schistosomula. ART treatment 14 or 21 days PI was associated with shift from Th2 to Th1 predominancy (decrease in IL-4 and upgrading of serum IFN-γ levels). In conclusion, ART is a promising drug in control of schistosomiasis mansoni due to its reductive effect on worm burden and its role in improvement of hepatic granulomatous lesions.

The present study evaluated the use of 3 types of Cysteine Protease Inhibitors (CPIs) with praziquantel (PZQ) as chemotherapy against schistosomiasis mansoni in mice. All groups were going to assessment of fluromethylketone (FMK), Vinyl Sulfone (VS) and Sodium Nitro Prussid (SNP) by measurement of parasitological, immunological and histological parameters. In our study, The ova count/gm liver or intestine on with PZQ treatment showed 99.1 and 95.2% Percent Reduction (PR), respectively compared to control group. The most effective CPI was FMK when combined with PZQ recording 99.8 and 99.6% PR for liver and intestine, respectively. Regarding to the oogram pattern, FMK, VS and SNP treatment either at 3 or 5 wk PI revealed marked decrease in the immature and mature ova counts and an increase of the dead ova percentages. The effect of CPIs was studied on the PR of Mean Granuloma Diameter (MGD) and Mean Granuloma Number (MGN) of infected treated groups compared to infected control and PZQ treated groups. FMK treatment proved to be highly was effective against S. mansoni in mice disintegrating ova and reduction in granulomatous size and numbers. The microscopic examination of liver sections of infected mice showed a large cellular granuloma with living central ova. sections of Infected mice liver treated with FMK or VS alone or combined with PZQ showed a great reduction in granuloma size as small cellular granuloma with central degenerated ova. We observed that these CPIs alone or combined with PZQ could effectively block schistosomal activity and prevented its growth and differentiation. Briefly, the best schistosomicidal effect of CPIs, that gained by drug administration orally in a dose of 50 mg kg(-1) mouse, was observed with FMK. This was followed by VS and lastly with SNP. These results gave evidence that CPIs can selectively arrest parasite replication without untoward toxicity to the host.

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Background:Many immunological techniques have been developed over years using the different Fasciola antigens for diagnosis of parasitic infection and to replace the parasitological techniques, which are time consuming and usually lack sensitivity and reproducibility.Materials and Methods:In this study, Fasciola gigantica paramyosin (Pmy) antigen was early detected in cattle sera using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), to evaluate the Pmy antigen performance in diagnosis. This work was conducted on 135 cattle blood samples, which were classified according to parasitological investigation into, healthy control (30), fascioliasis (75), and other parasites (30) groups.Results:The sensitivity of Sandwich ELISA was 97.33%, and the specificity was 95%, in comparison with parasitological examination, which recorded 66.66% sensitivity and 100% specificity, respectively.Conclusions:It was clear that the native F. gigantica Pmy is considered as a powerful antigen in early immunodiagnosis of fascioliasis, using a highly sensitive and specific sandwich ELISA technique.

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