In Vitro and In Vivo Efficacy of Albendazole Chitosan Microspheres with Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy in the Treatment of Spinal Echinococcosis

Abstract

Currently, there is a lack of clinically safe and effective treatment for spinal cystic echinococcosis (CE). Recent studies have shown that albendazole chitosan microspheres (ABZ-CS-MPS) and irradiation have certain anti-abdominal echinococcosis ability, so this study aims to compare the in vitro and in vivo therapeutic effects of ABZ-CS-MPs, Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and the combination therapy on spinal echinococcosis. Firstly, protoscolices were processed by different treatments to evaluate their respective anti-echinococcosis effect by monitoring the viability change of protoscoleces. Then, the apoptotic status of protoscoleces was evaluated by detecting the changes of mitochondrial membrane potential, the expression of apoptosis proteins and the ultrastructural alterations of protoscoleces. After that, we constructed a gerbil model of spinal CE and further applied B-ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging technology to assess the size of hydatid in vivo. Finally, the cysts were obtained and weighed to compare the inhibition rate in different groups. The combined therapy increased protoscoleces mortality to over 90% after 18 days, which showed the highest scolicidal effect. Moreover, confocal imaging, expression of apoptotic proteins and ultrastructural changes of protoscoleces showed the highest apoptotic rate in this group. In vivo, the combination treatment also exhibited the highest cyst inhibition rate (61.4%). In conclusion, our results showed that ABZ-CS-MPs combined with IMRT could be a new treatment option for spinal CE. We also provided a method to evaluate the growth and metastasis of hydatid in animals with B-ultrasound and MRI imaging technologies.

α-Mangostin Exhibits a Therapeutic Effect on Spinal Cystic Echinococcosis by Affecting Glutamine Metabolism

“…SCXK 2020-0005). The employed methods for parasitic infection and animal anesthesia were previously described in detail ( 41 ).…”

“…The relative ratio of red to green fluorescence is used to assess the extent of mitochondrial depolarization and PSC viability. We cultured the three groups of PSCs (0, 25, and 50 µM α-MG) for 72 h under different treatments and stained them with JC-1 as described previously ( 41 ).…”

“…Control and treated PSCs (25, 50 µM for 24 h) were processed for SEM (JEM1200EX, JEOL Ltd., Japan) and TEM as previously described ( 41 ). We used SEM to observe the general morphology and structural integrity of the PSCs and TEM to observe the formation of autophagic bodies and autophagic lysosomes.…”

Treatment of protoscoleces with gamma radiation: Potential immunoprotective effect against experimental murine echinococcosis

“…23,24 These protoscoleces have been widely used as an in vitro and in vivo study model to investigate the scolicidal effect and immunomodulatory properties of many chemical and/or natural molecules. [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] They have been also used to investigate the effect of radiation for therapeutic use or preventing echinococcosis recurrence after surgical removal of hydatid cysts [36][37][38][39][40][41] and to assess the potential of many molecules as novel vaccine for preventing infection. 9,16,17 Our study was conducted to investigate the immunoprotective effect against experimental murine echinococcosis by using gamma rays irradiated protoscoleces.…”

“…These protoscoleces have been widely used as an in vitro and in vivo study model to investigate the scolicidal effect and immunomodulatory properties of many chemical and/or natural molecules 25–35 . They have been also used to investigate the effect of radiation for therapeutic use or preventing echinococcosis recurrence after surgical removal of hydatid cysts 36–41 and to assess the potential of many molecules as novel vaccine for preventing infection 9,16,17 …”