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Evaluation of inhibitory potential of some selective methanolic plants extracts on biological characteristics of Acanthamoeba castellanii using human corneal epithelial cells in vitro

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Abstract

Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic protozoan pathogen and known to be one of the most ubiquitous organisms, play a vital role in ecosystem, and recognized to cause blinding keratitis and rare but fatal granulomatous encephalitis involving the central nervous system with a very poor prognosis. This is due to limited availability of effective anti-Acanthamoeba drugs. The objective of the present study was to determine the efficacy of methanolic plants crude extracts on the viability and biological properties of Acanthamoeba castellanii (T4 genotype) and its cytotoxic effects on human corneal epithelial cells (HCEC). Using HCEC, it was observed that Acanthamoeba exhibited binding (>90 %) and cytotoxicity (>80 %) to host cells. However, plant crude extracts remarkably inhibited more than 70 and 60 % of Acanthamoeba binding and cytotoxicity to HCEC, respectively. It was further established that crude extracts (ranging from 0.1 to 1.5 mg/ml) exhibited amoebicidal effects, i.e., >50 % of trophozoites were killed/reduced at maximum dose (1.5 mg/ml) within 1 h incubation. However, the residual subpopulation remained static over longer incubations. Furthermore, growth assay demonstrated crude extracts inhibited >50 % Acanthamoeba numbers up to 7 days. Our results confirmed that plant crude extracts has inhibitory effects on Acanthamoeba growth and viability. Overall, these findings revealed that tested plant extracts is inhibitory to Acanthamoeba properties associated with pathogenesis. To the best of our knowledge, our findings demonstrated for the first time that selected methanol plant crude extracts exhibits inhibitory effects on biological properties of Acanthamoeba without any toxic effects on HCEC cells in vitro.

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Abbreviations

Acanthamoeba :

Acanthamoeba castellanii

ATCC:

American Type Culture Collection

DMEM:

Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium

DMSO:

Dimethyl sulfoxide

HCEC:

Human corneal epithelial cells

LDH:

Lactate dehydrogenase

PBS:

Phosphate buffer saline

PYG:

Proteose peptone, yeast extract, glucose

QAU:

Quaid-Azam University

SEM:

Standard error mean

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grant from Institute of Biomedical and Genetic Engineering, Islamabad.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Hafiz Muhammad Shoaib & Asif Mir

  2. Institute of Biomedical and Genetic Engineering, 24 Mauve Area, Sector: G-9/1, PO Box 2981, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Ambreen Gul Muazzam & Abdul Matin

  3. Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, Molecular Diagnosis Research Institute, Namseoul University, Cheonan, 331-707, South Korea

    Suk-Yul Jung

Authors
  1. Hafiz Muhammad Shoaib
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  2. Ambreen Gul Muazzam
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  3. Asif Mir
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  4. Suk-Yul Jung
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  5. Abdul Matin
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Correspondence to Abdul Matin.

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Shoaib, H.M., Muazzam, A.G., Mir, A. et al. Evaluation of inhibitory potential of some selective methanolic plants extracts on biological characteristics of Acanthamoeba castellanii using human corneal epithelial cells in vitro. Parasitol Res 112, 1179–1188 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-012-3249-3

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