| Summary: | Mohamed Saad Younis,1 Eman Abd el rahman Abououf,1 Ali El saeed Ali,1 Sara Mohamed Abd elhady,2 Rita Maher Wassef2 1Medical Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Benha, Egypt; 2Medical Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Helwan University, Cairo, EgyptCorrespondence: Rita Maher WassefMedical Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Helwan University, 30 Street 276 New Maadi, Cairo, EgyptTel +201005782994Fax +20225193381Email rita.wassef@med.helwan.edu.egIntroduction: This study aims to assess the efficacy of silver nanoparticles (Ag Nps) alone and combined with metronidazole (Ag Nps + MTZ) as potential alternative therapeutic agents for Blastocystis hominis.Methods: The parasites were challenged with Ag Nps, Ag Nps + MTZ and MTZ. To assess the efficacy of drugs, counting of viable parasites was done after 1, 2, and 3 hours of adding the drugs.Results: Blastocystis hominis count was reduced by 20.72%, 28.23%, and 18.92% after one hour of adding Ag Nps, Ag Nps + MTZ, and MTZ, respectively. Cysts count was further reduced by 51.49%, 61.61%, and 40.78% after 2 hours and by 71.69%, 79.67%, and 62.65% after 3 hours of adding the drugs in the same order, respectively.Conclusion: There was a statistically significant difference (P< 0.05) in the in vitro growth inhibition of the parasite over the different time intervals when using the tested drugs against the control drug.Keywords: Blastocystis hominis, eosin brilliant cresyl blue stain, metronidazole, silver nanoparticles
|
|---|