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. 2023 Oct-Dec;18(4):505-513.
doi: 10.18502/ijpa.v18i4.14259.

The Therapeutic Efficacy of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Acute Toxoplasmosis in BALB/c Mice

Kiana Rafei Siahkal  1 , Hossein Keshavarz  1   2 , Saeedeh Shojaee  1 , Mehdi Mohebali  1   2 , Hojjat Zeraati  3 , Sanaz Jafarpour Azami  1 , Atefeh Behkar  2 , Mahboobeh Salimi  1
Affiliations

The Therapeutic Efficacy of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Acute Toxoplasmosis in BALB/c Mice

Kiana Rafei Siahkal et al. Iran J Parasitol. 2023 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

Background: Toxoplasma gondii infects nearly one-third of the world's population. Due to the significant side effects of current treatment options, identifying safe and effective therapies seems crucial. Nanoparticles (NPs) are new promising compounds in treating pathogenic organisms. Currently, no research has investigated the effects of zinc oxide NPs (ZnO-NPs) on Toxoplasma parasite. We aimed to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of ZnO-NPs against tachyzoite forms of T. gondii, RH strain in BALB/c mice.

Methods: In an experiment with 35 female BALB/c mice infected with T. gondii tachyzoites, colloidal ZnO-NPs at concentrations of 10, 20, and 50 ppm, as well as a 50 ppm ZnO solution and a control group, were orally administered four hours after inoculation and continued daily until the mices' death. Survival rates were calculated and tachyzoite counts were evaluated in the peritoneal fluids of infected mice.

Results: The administration of ZnO-NPs resulted in the reduction of tachyzoite counts in infected mice compared to both the ZnO-treated and control group (P<0.001). Intervention with ZnO-NPs significantly increased the survival time compared to the control group (6.2±0.28 days, P-value <0.05), additionally, the highest dose of ZnO-NPs (50 ppm) showed the highest mice survival time (8.7±0.42 days).

Conclusion: ZnO-NPs were effective in decreasing the number of tachyzoites and increasing mice survival time in vivo. Moreover, there were no significant differences in survival time between the untreated control group and the group treated with zinc oxide, suggesting that, bulk ZnO is not significantly effective in comparison with ZnONPs.

Keywords: BALB/c mice; Tachyzoite; Toxoplasma gondii; Zinc oxide nanoparticles.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
Survival rates of BALB/c mice inoculated with tachyzoites of Toxoplasma gondii RH strain and treated with different doses of ZnO-NPs, and ZnO compared with those in the control group (P<0.0001)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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