Efficacy of nitrofurantoin in treatment of murine model of trichinellosis.

Treatment of trichinellosis is still challenging. Lack of an established effective and safe treatment for trichinellosis, directed attention towards repurposing the already available drugs. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of nitrofurantoin (NF) as compared to albendazole (ABZ) and their combination in treatment of trichinellosis in mice. Mice were divided into five groups; Group I: negative control; Group II: positive control; Groups III, IV and V: infected and treated with ABZ, NF, and combined ALB with NF respectively. They were subdivided into subgroups (a) started treatment on 3rd day postinfection (PI) and were sacrificed on 6th day PI, and subgroups (b) started treatment on 21st day PI and were sacrificed on 35th day PI. Parasitological, histopathological, immunohistochemical, immunological and biochemical studies were done. The results showed that NF was potential effective in treatment of trichinellosis and its combination with ABZ achieved the best results as compared to ABZ alone. This combination significantly reduced adults (66.5 %) and larvae (87.1 %) counts in the intestinal and muscular phases respectively. Also, it significantly decreased the inflammation and serum interferon gamma (IFN-γ) levels with mean of 11.6 ± 0.43 and 15.8 ± 0.74 in the early and late stages of trichinellosis respectively. Additionally, it had antiangiogenic effects evidenced by decreasing the microvessel density/HPF with a reduction rate of 91.65 %, antioxidant effects by decreasing malondialdehyde (MDA) with mean ± SD of 0.73 ± 0.09 and increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD) with mean ± SD of 156.6 ± 5.2 in addition to its apoptotic effects by decreasing B-cell lymphoma (BCL-2) levels with mean ± SD of 0.81 ± 0.08 in the infected muscle cells. Thus, It was concluded that NF could be a promising anti-trichinellosis drug and its combination with ABZ could be an efficient treatment for early and late experimental trichinellosis.