background: cystic echinococcosis (ce), a zoonotic parasitic infection caused by the metacestode (larvae) stage of dog tapeworm echinococcus granulosus and recognized as a major economic and public health concern in the world. this study aimed to investigate the in vitro scolicidal effect of methanolic extract of berberis vulgaris l. roots and its main compound, berberine against protoscoleces ...

BACKGROUND Echinococcosis or hydatidosis is a chronic, zoonotic worldwide infection that occurs by the larval stages of taeniid cestodes of the genus Echinococcus. Iran is known as endemic region for this infection in the world. Vaccination has been considered as a good prevention method for this disease. Recombinant vaccines containing EG95 protein, against E. granulosus, has shown a high degr...

BACKGROUND Echinococcus granulosus, a zoonotic cestode parasite, causative agent of hydatid cyst is endemic in many parts of the world including the Middle East. Study on different aspects of this parasite is very important and valuable. However, working with adult worms which their habitat situated in the small intestine of canids, is dangerous and risky. Achieving such risky situation needs a...

Metformin (Met) is an anti-hyperglycemic and potential anti-cancer agent which may exert its anti-proliferative effects via the induction of energetic stress. In this study we investigated the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of Met against the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus. Metformin showed significant dose- and time-dependent killing effects on in vitro cultured protoscoleces and metac...

The Echinococcus granulosus genome was searched for microsatellites using 8 different repeated oligonucleotides as probes (GT15, CT15, AT15, CG15, CAT10, CAA10, CGG10 and CATA10). Southern blot experiments revealed that DNA regions containing GT, CAA, CATA and CT repeats are the most frequent in the E. granulosus genome. AT and CG probes showed no hybridization signal. Two loci containing CA/GT...

Protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus were cultured in vitro in 500, 250 or 100 micrograms/l albendazole sulphoxide for 1,3,7,10,14d and then 'rescued' (R) into drug-free medium for the remainder of the culture period. Successful minimum lengths of therapy were much longer than for praziquantel, and only at 500 micrograms/l was the 10dR treatment as effective as continuous therapy for 28d. T...

Background: Surgery is the main treatment for hydatid cyst disease, during which spillage of live protoscoleces a major cause hydatidosis recurrence. Scolicidal agents are used to prevent this problem. However, they may have some unpleasant side effects. Objectives: This study assessed scolicidal effects Alhagi maurorum hydroalcoholic extract on developing secondary cysts in BALB/c mice infecte...

Balb/c mice were infected intraperitoneally with protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus. After 15 months of infection, and by means of flow cytometry, the expression of T-cell markers CD3, CD4, and CD8 on T cells from peripheral blood, spleen, and thymus was analyzed and compared with that of age-matched controls. Infected mice had higher percentages of CD3+, and CD4+ cells in peripheral bloo...

Infection by the larval stage of the cestode Echinococcus granulosus causes a disease known as cystic echinococcosis or hydatidosis, which is one of the most widespread zoonotic infections of veterinary and medical importance. Numerous studies have shown that E. granulosus exists as a complex of strains differing in a wide variety of criteria. Ten distinct genotypes (G1-G10) have been identifie...