Author: Hafiz Muhammad Shohaib, Salik Nawaz and Abdul Matin
Publishing Date: 2016
E-ISSN: 1011-601X
Volume 29 Issue 6
ABSTRACT:
Acanthamoeba castellanii is member of free living amoeba that may cause painful sight-threatening keratitis and life threatening encephalitis which involves central nervous system. Treatments for both infections are problematic because of the amoebic cysts resistance to therapeutic agents. Here we evaluated in vitro strength of methanolic seed extract of Peganum harmala on Acanthamoeba cysts and its encystment mechanism. Our results revealed seed extracts (1 to 30mg/ml) exhibited amoebicidal effects against Acanthamoeba cysts. Furthermore Acanthamoeba encystment was also inhibited in concentration dependent manner with maximum inhibition at 2μg/ml after 48h incubation. In conclusion, we demonstrated for the first time that methanolic extracts exhibit remarkable inhibition of Acanthamoeba cysts and encystment in vitro which could serve a potential new natural agent against Acanthamoeba.
KEYWORDS: Acanthamoeba; amoebicidal effects; encystment; plant extracts.