Assessment of the efficacy of chitosan and silver nanoparticles-loaded with nitazoxanide for treatment of cryptosporidium infection / Nourhan Hisham Eid Asran ; Supervised Ismail Abdelshafy Abdelhamid , Sherif Abdelaziz Ibrahim , Ibrahim Rabie Aly Shalash

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Biotechnology

Cryptosporidium is a ubiquitous harsh protozoan parasite that resists many disinfectants. It remains viable and infective for a long time in water and food causing global outbreaks. Nitazoxanide is the only treatment of Cryptosporidiosis but it has a limited effect on malnourished children and immunosuppressed patients so there is a massive need to find a cure that is more efficient with immunosuppressed patients. With the progress of scientific fields, the field of nanotechnology has shown a great development in improving the efficiency of the drug. Especially chitosan and silver nanoparticles when loaded with nitazoxanide for the Cryptosporidium infection. The present work aims to study the efficacy of chitosan and silver nanoparticles loaded with nitazoxanide versus one of the commercially used drugs in the treatment of Cryptosporidium infection in the experimentally infected immunosuppressed mice. Fifty-one infected immunosuppressed mice were divided into seven groups. The negative control, positive non-treated control, treated with nitazoxanide, treated with silver nanoparticles alone, treated with chitosan nanoparticles alone, treated with silver nanoparticles loaded with nitazoxanide, and finally chitosan nanoparticles loaded with nitazoxanide.Some assessment parameters such as parasitological examination, immunological examination, and histopathological examination were performed.The effect appeared to decrease the number of Cryptosporidium oocysts and altered their content.The results in this study elucidate CH-NPs loaded with nitazoxanide and silver nanoparticles loaded with nitazoxanide as an effective anti-cryptosporidial agent more than using nitazoxanide alone.Therefore, the combination of commercial drugs and nanoparticles increases the natural effect of the drugs more than using them alone

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