Combined effects of Limonene and Ivermectin on P-glycoprotein-9 gene expression of lambs Infected with Haemonchus contortus

Although ivermectin (IVM) has a wide spectrum and long half-life, its frequent use as an anthelmintic for the last 42 years led to its worldwide tolerance by Haemonchus contortus. We evaluated the combination of limonene (LIM), a P-glycoprotein (Pgp) modulator, with IVM in lambs infected with a multidrug-resistant H. contortus. Twenty-four male Dorper lambs were artificially infected with two doses (seven days apart) of 8000 infective larvae of a multidrug-resistant isolate of H. contortus. The infection was patent 25 days later. Fifteen days before treatment with IVM (DAY -15), animals were divided into 4 groups: Infected-untreated control (CTL), IVM, LIM, and LIM+IVM. From DAY -15 to DAY + 14, groups LIM and LIM+IVM received 200 mg/kg of body weight/day of LIM via oral. On DAY 0, a single dose of IVM at 200 µg/kg of body weight was administered orally to groups IVM and LIM+IVM. On DAY + 7 and DAY + 14, fecal egg counts (FEC) were performed and on DAY + 14 animals were euthanized for total worm count (TWC), worm length, fecundity of females, and Pgp-9 gene expression. On DAY + 7, group LIM+IVM had 96.29% efficacy based on Fecal Egg Count Reduction TEST (FECRT) and a highly significant reduction in FEC (P = 0.0005) when compared to CTL. On DAY + 14, the efficacy of LIM+IVM was 82.87% on FECRT, although no differences were found among groups for FEC, TWC, worm length, or Pgp-9 gene expression. Female worms from the CTL group had higher egg counts in their uterus when compared to LIM. No differences were found for hematological or biochemical parameters, body weight, or weight gain among groups. Thus, LIM given daily at 200 mg/kg was safe for animals and, when combined with IVM, decreased egg shedding and could reduce pasture contamination, although it was unable to kill multidrug-resistant H. contortus.

164 RAPID IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIA IN BOVINE SEMEN BY MATRIX-ASSISTED LASER DESORPTION/IONIZATION MASS SPECTROMETRY

Frozen bovine semen used in the IVF process can be a potential source of microorganisms that can prevent or disturb embryo development and cause issues with the sanitary certification for bovine embryo commercialization and export. Therefore, the aim of this work is to introduce a novel tool for the fast identification of the pathogens on the frozen semen based on the mass spectra of their ribosomal proteins analysed by matrix-assisted desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). Thirty bovine semen samples, which were aliquots of commercial sealed straws used daily in the commercial IVF routine at In vitro Brasil Ltd. (Mogi Mirim, SP, Brazil), were used for this work. Fifty microlitres of semen were incubated in 10 mL of brain heart infusion broth (BHI) for 24 h at 37°C. If turbidity was observed, the bacterial cultures were submitted to bacterial extraction and mass spectrometric analysis according to Barreiro et al. (2010). The mass spectra were obtained using an AUTOFLEX MALDI TOF/TOF and were analysed with the database library MALDI Biotyper 3.0 software (Bruker Daltonik, Germany) at default settings. For each sample, the result was given by means of a log score with a maximum value of 3.0. In this study, only scores higher than 2.0 were considered, which provide confident species identification. The bacteria identified were Citrobacter freundii (2 samples), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (4 samples), Enterobacter cloacae (6 samples) complex, Candida parapsilosis (2 samples), and Enterococcus mundtii (2 samples). Note that all the identified bacteria consistently match with the most common contaminants reported in literature for bovine frozen semen (Bielanskia et al. 2003). The capability of the technique to identify the bacteria without the ribosomal extraction (i.e. of bacteria pellets diluted in water and acetonitrile) was successful for the pellet of S. maltophilia, C. freundii, and E. cloacae complex with scores higher than 2.3, indicating a very high probability of the identification of the bacterial genus and the species. This can be explained by considering the capability of the mass spectrometric matrix to lyse the membrane of the bacteria and directly extract and then ionize the ribosomal proteins. In order to exclude the presence of a mixing of bacteria in the pellet, the colonies were properly isolated. The results matched with the ones obtained before the isolation. In order to confirm the MALDI-MS identification, the isolated bacteria from the bovine semen were also submitted to sequencing of region 16SrRNA. In conclusion, MALDI-MS technique was successfully applied for the identification of pathogens in the bovine semen. Experiments to evaluate the presence of microorganisms in media used for in vitro maturation, IVF, and in vitro culture of the bovine oocytes and embryos using this strategy are underway. This robust and fast approach is able to detect early contamination and allows prevention of economic losses and sanitary excellence in the bovine IVF process.

In vitrocytotoxicity activity on several cancer cell lines of acridone alkaloids andN-phenylethyl-benzamide derivatives fromSwinglea glutinosa(Bl.) Merr

The methanol extract from the stems and fruits of Swinglea glutinosa (Rutaceae) afforded 11 known acridone alkaloids and three N-phenylethyl-benzamide derivatives, glycocitrine-IV, 1,3,5-trihydroxy-4-methoxy-10-methyl-2,8-bis(3-methylbut-2-enyl)acridin-9(10H)-one, 1,3,5- trihydroxy-2,8-bis(3-methylbut-2-enyl)-10-methyl-9-acridone, citbrasine, citrusinine-II, citrusinine-I, 5-dihydroxyacronycine, pyranofoline, 3,4-dihydro-3,5,8-trihydroxy-6-methoxy-2,2,7-trimethyl-2H-pyrano[2,3-a]acridin-12(7H)-one, 2,3-dihydro-4,9-dihydroxy-2-(2-hydroxy-propan-2-yl)-11-methoxy-10-methylfuro[3,2-b]acridin-5(10H)-one, bis-5-hydroxyacronycine, N-(2-{4-[(3,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dien-1-yl)oxy]phenyl}ethyl)benzamide, N-(2-{4-[(3,7-dimethyl-4-acethyl-octa-2,6-dien-1-yl)oxy]phenyl}ethyl)benzamide, and severine acetate. All compounds isolated were examined for their activity against three cancer cell lines: human lung carcinoma (COR-L23), human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7), human melanoma (C32), and normal human fetal lung cell line, MRC-5. The acridones tested exhibited weak cytotoxicity but the amides showed moderate nonselective cytotoxic activity.