Trichinellosis is a worldwide risky parasitic zoonosis caused by a nematode of the genus Trichinella. Anthelmintic such as albendazole and mebendazole commonly used to treat trichi-nellosis are badly water soluble and exhibit unfavorable bioavailability after oral administra- tion increasing need for effective and safe drug. This study evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of lactoferrin loaded on silver nanoparticles in treating T. spiralis infection in mice by parasito-logical, immunological, and histopathological parameters. Forty albino mice were classified in-to 8 groups of 5 mice. G1: Non-infected non-treated (normal), (G2): Infected non-treated (in-fected control). G3: Infected and treated with albendazole, G4: Infected and treated with lac-toferrin, G5: Infected and treated with silver nanoparticles, G6: Infected and treated with lac-toferrin loaded on silver nanoparticles, G7: Infected and treated with albendazole in combina-tion with lactoferrin, & G8: Infected and treated with albendazole in combination with lactofer-rin loaded on silver nanoparticles.
The results revealed a significant decline in all treated mice with the highest reduction rate of T. spiralis adult count in G8 treated with a combination of albendazole and lactoferrin loaded on silver nanoparticles (98.59%), followed by G7 treated with albendazole and lacto-ferrin (95.77%), G3 treated with albendazole (90.38%), G6 treated with lactoferrin loaded on silver nanoparticles (84.27%), G4 treated with lactoferrin (59.86%), and lowest reduction rate (22.3%) was in G5 treated with nanoparticles. Also, there was a significant decline in TNF- α & IL-10 levels and an improvement of the intestinal histopathological changes in mice treated with a combination of albendazole and lactoferrin loaded on silver nanoparticles.
Keywords: Trichinella spiralis, Lactoferrin, Silver nanoparticles, Histopathology, TNF, IL-10.