Effects of iron chelating agent on Schistosoma mansoniinfected murine model

Research Abstract

Effects of iron chelating agent on Schistosoma mansoniinfected murine model Noha H. Abdelgelil, Manal Z.M. Abdellatif, Ekhlas H. Abdel-Hafeez, Usama S. Belal, Rabie M. Mohamed Abdel-Razik H. Abdel-Razik, Kamel M.A. Hassanin, Ahmed Abdel-Wahab Abstract Schistosomiasis is one of the major health problems in many tropical and developing countries. Infection takesplace once cerceriae penetrate human skin, then it changed into schistosomules. The schistosomules takes iron inthe form of heme from host'shaemoglobin, ferritin and transferrin. Iron is a vital element not only for growth and sexual maturity of schistosomules to adults but also for oogenesis. Since the trapped eggs are the pathologicalcausative agent for most of pathogenesis and complications, the current work was designed to study the effectsof early deprivation of schistosomules from iron in the host (in vivo) by chelating it with deferoxamine (DFO).The iron chelation has effects on growth, maturity and egg deposition, as well as it has ameliorative effects onliver pathology such as hepatic fibrosis. Mice were classified into four groups, normal control, DFO treated only,Schistosoma mansoni(S. mansoni) infected DFO untreated and S. mansoniinfected DFO treated. The infected DFO treated mice showed significant reduction in fecal egg excretion with increasedpercentage of dead eggs and thiswas accompanied with a significant reduction of both total worm burden and hepatic egg load and increaseddead egg percentage compared to the infected DFO untreated group. There was also a significant reduction inboth serum and hepatic tissue ferritin concentrations in the infected DFO treated mice in comparison to the infectedDFO untreated group. Additionally, a significant decrease in number and size of granulomas with subsequentimprovement of liver fibrosis was recorded in the infected DFO treated group. This immunopathology wasalso associated with significant up regulation of Interlukine12 (IL12), Interferon gamma (IFN γ) and significant down regulation in interleukin4 (IL4), interleukin10 (IL10) in both serum and hepatic tissue in the infected DFOtreated compared to other groups. Entirely, DFO succeeded in diminishing the growth, maturity and fecundityof S. mansoniwith a subsequent improvement of hepatic pathology. As a result of the above findings, it can be concluded that DFO could be considered as a useful treatment against schistosomal infection.

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