Bovine Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 of Bangladesh: Is it capable of causing diseases similar to clinical strains?

Abstract

Candida albicans is generally one of the most commonly isolated fungal pathogen from human body. Bee venom (BV) is a natural substance, reported to have antimicrobial activity and to boost the immune system. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of bee venom as antimycotic agent and to asses its antidimorphic effect in comparison with some antimycotic drugs available in the market, and also, the antitumor activity of BV was studied. It was revealed that BV was the most potent antimycotic agent with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 40 µg ml-1 whereas, flucytosine was relatively weak with MIC of 320 µg ml-1. The tested antifungal drugs block dimorphism at a concentration significantly lower than their MIC values. In vivo study using Swiss albino mice clearly indicated that in candidiasis-induced mice then treated with BV, no fungal load was evident in kidney, liver or spleen tissues. Mammary carcinoma bearing mice treated with BV indicated that the tumor was suppressed in a dose dependent manner and the survival of mice treated with BV was prolonged as compared to the BV untreated controls. In conclusion, the results suggest that bee venom could be developed as a natural antimycotic drug. More attention should be paid to natural inhibitors of tumor growth such as BV and other venoms and screening their biological activities.   Key words: Antimycotics, antidimorphic activity, antitumor, honey bee venom, Candidaalbicans.