Hydatid Cyst Killing Mechanism of Ziziphora tenuior by Inducing Apoptosis via Mitochondrial Intrinsic Pathway

Ziziphora tenuior is considered as an appropriate protoscolicidal agent yet the mechanism of such effect is not known so far. The aim of this study was to evaluate the apoptotic effect of Z. tenuior extract on protoscolices of hydatid cyst.

Protoscolices were collected aseptically and the Bradford test was employed to determine the number required for the experiments. Various concentrations of Z. tenuior extract (5, 50, and 100 mg/mL) was incubated with hydatid cyst protoscolices at 37 oC and 5% Co2 for 4 h. The apoptotic effect of Z. tenuior extract on hydatid cyst protoscolices and the evaluation of caspases 3, 8, and 9 activities were ditermined using ELISA-based commercial diagnostic kits.

In the present study, 50 and 100 mg/mL of Z. tenuior extract produced apoptosis in the protoscolices of hydatid cyst significantly (p<0.05). Also, the activity of caspase 3 at 50 and 100 mg/mL significantly increased by 29.99% and 36.01%, respectively (p<0.05). Similarly, caspase 9 also demonstrated a significant increased activity up to 15.23%, and 45.31% at the same concentrations used for caspase 3, respectively (p<0.05).

Our findings in this study indicated that, Z. tenuior extract can induce apoptotic cell death on hydatid cyst protoscolices by increasing the activity of caspases 3 and 9 via the internal apoptotic pathway.