مقالات رزومه دکتر پیمان اصلانی

Echinococcosis is a global cosmopolitan zoonotic disease and a major veterinary and public health issue. In humans, echinococcosis usually develops following close contact with infected dogs or ingestion of the parasite eggs. Until now, no effective vaccine has been commercially developed, and treatment is only focused on controlling hydatidosis. This study was conducted to evaluate the protoscolicidal activity of alcoholic extracts of pomegranate rind and barberry.

The alcoholic extracts of pomegranate rind and barberry were prepared by mixing 330 g of powdered plants with 1,000 ml of 70% ethanol. A concentrate of viable protoscolices (PCSs) was obtained from hydatid cysts found in the lungs and liver of sheep. Next, PCSs were treated with four different concentrations (5, 10, 20, 30, and mg/ml) of each extract for 10, 20, 30, and 60 minutes. The eosin exclusion test was performed to assess viability of the PCSs.

The mortality rate caused by treatment with the extracts ranged between 25% and 100%. Complete inactivation of PCSs was achieved after 60 minutes of exposure to 15 mg/ml of the pomegranate rind extract and 30 mg/ml of the barberry extract.

Given their favorable anti-PCSs activity, combination of conventional synthetic albendazole with the alcoholic extracts of pomegranate rind and barberry might induce higher anti-PCS activity with lower side effects. It is recommended to evaluate the anti-PCSs activities of the pomegranate rind and barberry alcoholic extracts in vivo and ex vivo.

Due to the emergence of multidrug-resistant Candida species, the discovery of new antifungal agents with minimum side effects is essential. The aim of this study was to investigate the antifungal activity of caprylic acid and nano-encapsulated caprylic acid against C. albicans as well as their effect on the expression of EFG1 gene.

In this laboratory trial study, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of caprylic acid and nano-encapsulated caprylic acid against C. albicans was evaluated at various concentrations (400-625 and 1.3-50 μL/mL, respectively). Real time-PCR was performed to assess the expression level of EFG1 gene. Cytotoxicity effect of caprylic acid and nano-encapsulated caprylic acid was evaluated on SW480 cell line using MTT test.

Antifungal activity findings displayed that MIC90 and MIC50 values of caprylic acid were 500 and 450 μg/mL, respectively, whereas MIC90 and MIC50 values of nano-encapsulated caprylic acid were 6.2 and 3.1 μg/mL, respectively. The expression of EFG1 gene significantly decreased in the groups treated with caprylic acid and nano-encapsulated caprylic acid compared to the control group. According to the cytotoxicity evaluation findings, the viability of cells treated with caprylic acid was significantly higher than that of cells exposed to nano-encapsulated caprylic acid.

According to the obtained results, nano-encapsulated caprylic acid successfully inhibited C. albicans growth at a lower concentration compared to caprylic acid. Overall, it was found that nano-encapsulated caprylic acid is a promising antifungal agent against Candida species; however, further studies are needed to be performed about nano-encapsulation of caprylic acid.