Abstract
Tapeworm infections cause insidious and irreversible effects in the infected individuals and some of them have already shown resistance to available drugs. A search for alternative treatment is urgently required. Phenolic compounds are amongst the most researched natural substances for their medicinal use. The present study aims to determine anthelmintic efficacy of two polyphenols Gallic acid and Catechin against the zoonotic rat tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta. Both compounds are potent anti-oxidants and play major roles in combating pathogens, while their anthelmintic property according to our knowledge is yet to be explored. The parasite model H. diminuta was procured from intestine of infected rats raised in our laboratory. Two sets of parasites were treated in vitro with 5, 10, 20 and 40 mg/ml concentrations of each Gallic Acid and Catechin separately, another set of parasites were treated with standard dose of Praziquantel in RPMI 1640, while still another set of worms were kept in RPMI 1640 at 37 ± 10C with 1% Dimethyl sulfoxide as control. Motility and structural alterations were the parameters assessed for anthelmintic efficacy of the compounds. After paralysis the worms were processed for morphological, histological, and ultrastructural study and observed under light and electron microscope. Dose-dependent efficacy was observed in both compounds. Shrinkage of suckers, deformed proglottids and architectural alteration of the tegument were observed throughout the body of treated parasites compared to control. Although in terms of time taken for paralysis and mortality Gallic acid was more effective than Catechin, the degree of morphological aberrations caused were almost similar, except histological alteration was more in Catechin treated worms than in Gallic acid. Nevertheless, both Gallic acid and Catechin are suggested to possess anthelmintic efficacy besides other health benefits but extended studies are required to compare their efficacy.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledged Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pusa, New Delhi, India for providing research fellowship to Chandrani Mondal (grant no. 09/0202(0105)/2019-EMR-I). Acknowledgement is also extended to Department of Zoology, Visva-Bharati for providing infrastructure, and the DST-PURSE (Ref. No. SR/PURSE Phase2/42 (G and C)) for Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope facility, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan.
Funding
The research work was funded by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pusa, New Delhi, India as a research fellowship to Chandrani Mondal under the grant no. 09/0202(0105)/2019-EMR-I.
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Larisha M. Lyndem conceptualized and designed the work, Chandrani Mondal, Sudeshna Mandal and, Samiparna Saha performed the experiments, Chandrani Mondal, and Mou Singh Ray maintain the parasite. Chandrani Mondal wrote the first draft, Larisha M. Lyndem and Chandrani Mondal analyzed the data and finalized the draft and all authors reviewed the manuscript.
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The authors assert that all experiments with rats were performed following the standard of practice according to Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC), Visva-Bharati and the approved number is IAEC/VB/2021/01.
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Mondal, C., Mandal, S., Saha, S. et al. Gallic acid and Catechin induce morphological alterations on the zoonotic parasite Hymenolepis diminuta. Parasitol Res 122, 2287–2299 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-07929-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-07929-w