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In Vitro Antiprotozoal Effects of Nano-chitosan on Plasmodium falciparum, Giardia lamblia and Trichomonas vaginalis

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Abstract

Background

Treatment of parasitic infections with conventional drugs is associated with high toxicity, and undesirable side effects require cogent substitutions. Nanotechnology has provided novel approaches to synthesize nano-drugs to improve efficient antipathetic treatment.

Purpose

Nano-chitosan as a nontoxic antimicrobial agent was examined against three most prevalent protozoa in humans, Plasmodium falciparum, Giardia lamblia and Trichomonas vaginalis.

Methods

Chitosan extracted from Penicillium fungi was converted to nanoparticles to maximize its therapeutic properties. Safety of nano-chitosan was examined by determining its hemolytic property and toxicity on PC12 cells. The studied parasites were identified with RFLP-PCR and cultivation in relevant media. Characteristics of nano-chitosan as an useful and valuable curative compound was evaluated by FTIR, DLS and SEM. Dose dependent anti-parasitic effect of nano-chitosan was evaluated.

Results

The highest anti-parasitic activity of the nano-chitosan was observed at 50 μg/mL by which growth rates of cultivated P. falciparum, T. vaginalis and G. lamblia were inhibited by 59.5%, 99.4%, and 31.3%, respectively. The study demonstrated that nano-chitosan with the least toxicity, low side effects, and substantial efficacy deserved to be considered as an anti-parasitic nano-compound.

Conclusion

Nano-chitosan significantly inhibited protozoan growth in vitro promising to explore its use to combat parasitic infections. Further investigations covering extended sample size, in vivo experiments and optimizing the concentration used may lead to efficient treatment of protozoan diseases.

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Acknowledgements

We should express our best gratitude to Pasteur Institute of Iran, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, and Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, for providing P. falciparum strains and allowing us to use their biotechnology labs to prepare nano-chitosan. Also, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Iran University of Medical Sciences for providing the necessary fund to perform the present research.

Funding

This work was supported by Iran University of Medical Sciences (code: 97-4-4-13714).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Taher Elmi, Fatemeh Sadeghi & Fatemeh Tabatabaie

  2. Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran

    Bahman Rahimi Esboei

  3. Biochemistry Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Pasteur Avenue, Tehran, Iran

    Zahra Zamani

  4. Department of Medical Mycology and Parasitology, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran

    Mojtaba Didehdar

  5. Department of Parasitology, Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Iranian National Registry Center for Lophomoniasis and Toxoplasmosis, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Mahdi Fakhar

  6. Department of Pharmacognosy and Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Aroona Chabra

  7. Department of Medical Parasitology, School of Medicine, International Campus, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Fateme Hajialiani

  8. Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran

    Mohammad Javad Namazi

  9. College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, Glasgow University, Glasgow, UK

    Mohammad Javad Namazi

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  1. Taher Elmi
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  2. Bahman Rahimi Esboei
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  5. Mojtaba Didehdar
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  8. Fateme Hajialiani
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  9. Mohammad Javad Namazi
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Contributions

TE, BRE, ZZ, MF: conceived, analyzed data, and designed the study; MD, AC, FS, FH: performed experiments, provided samples; FT: supervised, and wrote the paper; MJN: wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mohammad Javad Namazi or Fatemeh Tabatabaie.

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Conflict of interest

We declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the present study.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Iran University of Medical Sciences in accordance with Helsinki Declaration guidelines. In this regard, the ethical code of IR.IUMS.FMD.REC.1397.219 was designated to the present study.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests regarding the publication of this work.

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Elmi, T., Rahimi Esboei, B., Sadeghi, F. et al. In Vitro Antiprotozoal Effects of Nano-chitosan on Plasmodium falciparum, Giardia lamblia and Trichomonas vaginalis. Acta Parasit. 66, 39–52 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-020-00255-6

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