In vitro effects of Harmine against Echinococcus granulosus protoscoleces by stimulating DNA damage

In this study, we aim to evaluate the anti-parasitic efficacy and the mechanism of DNA damage of HM against E. granulosus. In vitro, the results indicated that, within two and three days of treatment, ABZ killed 30.4% and 35.3% of protoscoleces, whereas HM killed 52.7% and 100% of protoscoleces, respectively. Furthermore, the presence of abnormalities in the internal structure of protoscoleces was examined by ultrastructural images of TEM, and the result showed that there were scattered nucleoli and heterochromatin margination phenomenon by HM treatment. DNA damage of protoscoleces was examined by using the comet assay, and results showed the DNA of protoscoleces was damaged. Moreover, EgATM, EgP53, EgTopo2a and EgRad54 genes were used to support the DNA damage by HM treatment, and results showed that all four genes were upregulated expression. In further, the result of HM treatment was tested by using designed siRNA to inhibit the expression of EgTopo2a and EgRad54. The results demonstrated that the viability was 88.75 ± 2.11% after suppressing the expression of EgTopo2a, which was significantly higher than that for HM alone group (P <0.01). The viability was 10.11 ± 2.60% after transfected with EgRad54 siRNA, which was significantly lower compared with the HM alone group (P<0.01). Based on our preliminary data, HM demonstrated significant parasiticidal activity against E. granulosus in vitro without obvious toxicity towards its host cells, suggesting that HM can be ...
Source: Experimental Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Authors: Source Type: research