Keratitis induced by Allovahlkampfia spelaea in experminental rat model: a trial for treatment with ellagic acid

Members of family Acanthamoebidae and Vahlkampfiidae are amphizoic, occurring as human parasite causing many diseases. This study was aims to evaluate the efficacy of ellagic acid (EA) to ameloriate the histological changes in cornea and the changes in oxidative stress markers in different organs of rats infected with Allovahlkampfia spelaea. Thirty rats were intraocular infected with trophozites of A. spelaea.  Fourteen days later, rats divided into four groups, treated with chlorhexidine (CHX), EA, EA plus CHX, and lubricant eye drops for 14 days, respectively. All eyes were examined clinically then rats were killed and their corneas, brain, liver, ling, kidney and spleen were excised and used for histological and biochemicals evaluation. Eyes from A. spelaea infected rats showed corneal ulcer with disruption of corneal layer, congestion and infilteration of the inflammatory cell in stromal  layer.  However, the cornea of CHX, EA, and the combination of CHX and EA treated rats showed hyperplasia in the epithelial layer of cornea, hyperplasia in the epithelial layer of cornea with stromal vascularization and epithelial hyperplasia, stromal vascularization with fibroblast cell activation, respectively. The activity of acetylchoinestase in the brain and the markers of oxidative stress in the brain, lung, liver, kidney and spleen were altered in infected rats with A. spelaea and restored by treatment with CHX, EA, or the combination of CHX and EA. In conclusion infection with A. spelaea induced keratitis and biochemical changes in organs of rats, these changes were ameloriated by the treatment with CHX or EA or the combination of both with the priority of the later one.