The Investigation of the Effect and Mechanism of Sophora moorcroftiana Alkaloids in Combination with Albendazole on Echinococcosis in an Experimental Rats Model.

Fabin Zhang,Deping Cao,Mei Yang,Shilei Cheng,Haining Fan,Bin Li,Chunhui Hu,Ruchong Pan,Shulin Wang,Yanhui Xu

doi:10.1155/2018/3523126

Abstract

Echinococcosis is a worldwide anthropozoonosis which is highly endemic over large animal husbandry areas in northwestern China. The current clinical therapeutic medicine against echinococcosis is albendazole, although it caused serious side effects in patients. The component in traditional Chinese herb medicine, Sophora moorcroftiana alkaloids (SA), is thought to be a potential drug to treat echinococcosis. In order to explore the effect and mechanism of SA treatment against echinococcosis, we established animal echinococcosis model and treated rats with albendazole alone, alkaloids alone, and combined therapy. The combined treatment showed effective inhibition against parasite infection due to induction of host response and alleviated liver injury; meanwhile albendazole caused serious liver problem. The proteomics study revealed that the combined therapy might induce complement activation through C3, C4, C5, SERPINA1, and SERPINC1 proteins and cell adhesion by ANXA2, EZR, YWHAB, HSP90AN1, and PRKAR2A proteins, while albendazole treatment could induce liver injury through CRYAB, YWHAZ, SLC25A24, and HSPA1B proteins that were involved in cell death. In all, we consider that the combinational treatment displayed better therapeutic effects against liver echinococcosis as well as alleviated liver injury, which could be considered as an effective strategy to treat echinococcosis clinically.

Highlights

Echinococcosis is a worldwide anthropozoonosis which is caused by Echinococcus granulosus [1]
The IL-2 level in SAT + AT group was significantly higher than that in model group, while no obvious difference was observed between each treatment group and normal group
For IL-6, its amount in SAT group showed significant difference compared with model group, but there is no significant difference among other groups

Summary

Introduction

Echinococcosis is a worldwide anthropozoonosis which is caused by Echinococcus granulosus [1]. Approximately one percent of the farmer population in these areas was infected by Echinococcus granulosus. Albendazole is the most common clinical drug to treat echinococcosis [4]. It showed poor solubility in gastrointestinal (GI) tract, causing low drug concentration in liver. Albendazole causes serious adverse side effects in patients such as encephalitis syndrome, influenza-like syndrome, allergic purpura, and drug rash. It has been reported that Echinococcus granulosus protoscolices have developed resistance to albendazole [4,5,6]. It is urgent to develop new therapeutic strategies against echinococcosis

Methods

Results

Conclusion