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Effects of dietary intake of garlic on intestinal trematodes

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Abstract

The current strategy for the control of helminth infections relies on chemotherapy. However, resistance appearance is promoting the necessity of developing new drugs against trematodes. Herein, potential trematocidal effects of garlic (Allium sativum) are investigated in the context of intestinal foodborne trematodes, employing the Echinostoma caproni-mouse model. Daily administration of dietary doses of garlic was conducted in three groups of mice: (i) before infection (prophylaxis), (ii) after infection (therapeutic) and (iii) both, before and after infection (continuous). A fourth group of mice, not exposed to garlic, was used as control. No differences in worm recovery, fecundity and local cytokine expression profiles were found with respect to control infections. However, considerable alterations in tegument structure, including swelling, furrowing, vacuolization and changes in secretory bodies were detected in garlic-exposed parasites using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Protein secretion was markedly reduced in response to garlic, whereas up-regulation of several proteins, such as major vault protein and tER-ATPase, was observed in treated worms. The results presented herein provide new insights in the anthelminthic activity of bioactive garlic compounds and the manner that parasites respond to toxins.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Projects BFU2016-75639-P from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Madrid, Spain), PROMETEO2014-083 Fase II from Conselleria d’Educació, Generalitat Valenciana (Valencia, Spain) and No. RD12/0018/0013, Red de Investigación Cooperativa en Enfermedades Tropicales – RICET, IV National Program of I + D + I 2008–2011, ISCIII – Subdirección General de Redes y Centros de Investigación Cooperativa and FEDER from the Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (Madrid, Spain).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Parasitología, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Valencia, Avda. Vicent Andrés Estellés s/n, 46100, Burjassot, Valencia, Spain

    Alba Cortés, Miguel García-Ferrús, Javier Sotillo, J. Guillermo Esteban, Rafael Toledo & Carla Muñoz-Antolí

  2. Centre for Biodiscovery and Molecular Development of Therapeutics, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, QTHA, Building E4, McGregor Rd, Smithfield, AUS, Cairns, QLD, 4878, Australia

    Javier Sotillo

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  1. Alba Cortés
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  2. Miguel García-Ferrús
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  3. Javier Sotillo
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  4. J. Guillermo Esteban
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  5. Rafael Toledo
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Correspondence to Carla Muñoz-Antolí.

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Ethical approval

All procedures involving animals were approved by Ethical Committee of Animal Welfare and Experimentation of the University of Valencia (Ref#A18348501775). Protocols adhered to Spanish (Real Decreto 53/2013) and European (2010/63/UE) regulations.

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Supplementary Fig. 1

Ileal expression of cytokine mRNA 2 weeks after Echinostoma caproni infection in mice with different exposure to garlic. Vertical bars indicate standard deviation. RQ: relative quantity (GIF 36 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 777 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Rapid acidification of culture media (RPMI 1640) by garlic-exposed Echinostoma caproni adults. Note the different color between control (pink) and exposed groups (orange) (GIF 279 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 8491 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Scanning electron microscopy micrographs of a particularly damaged specimen exposed to garlic. (a) Cephalic region displaying mild desquamation (d) and erosion (es) in the collar. (b) Visible eruption (er) and sloughing off of the tegument (s) on the ventral surface of the parasite (GIF 270 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 4587 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Identification details of TaqMan® Gene Expression Assays (Applied Biosystems). (DOCX 11 kb)

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Cortés, A., García-Ferrús, M., Sotillo, J. et al. Effects of dietary intake of garlic on intestinal trematodes. Parasitol Res 116, 2119–2129 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-017-5511-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-017-5511-1

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