Resistance of Biomphalaria alexandrina to Schistosoma mansoni and Bulinus truncatus to Schistosoma haematobium Correlates with Unsaturated Fatty Acid Levels in the Snail Soft Tissue

Only a fraction of the Biomphalaria and Bulinus snail community shows patent infection with schistosomes despite continuous exposure to the parasite, indicating that a substantial proportion of snails may resist infection. Accordingly, exterminating the schistosome intermediate snail hosts in transmission foci in habitats that may extend to kilometres is cost-prohibitive and damaging to the ecological equilibrium and quality of water and may be superfluous. It may be more cost effective with risk less ecological damage to focus on discovering the parameters governing snail susceptibility and resistance to schistosome infection. Therefore, laboratory bred Biomphalaria alexandrina and Bulinus truncatus snails were exposed to miracidia of laboratory-maintained Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium, respectively. Snails were examined for presence or lack of infection association with soft tissue and hemolymph content of proteins, cholesterol, and triglycerides, evaluated using standard biochemical techniques and palmitic, oleic, linoleic, and arachidonic acid, assayed by ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Successful schistosome infection of B. alexandrina and B. truncatus consistently and reproducibly correlated with snails showing highly significant (up to P<0.0001) decrease in soft tissue and hemolymph content of the monounsaturated fatty acid, oleic acid, and the polyunsaturated fatty acids, linoleic, and arachidonic acids as compared to naïve snails. Snails that resisted twice infection had soft tissue content of oleic, linoleic, and arachidonic acid similar to naïve counterparts. High levels of soft tissue and hemolymph oleic, linoleic, and arachidonic acid content appear to interfere with schistosome development in snails. Diet manipulation directed to eliciting excessive increase of polyunsaturated fatty acids in snails may protect them from infection and interrupt disease transmission in a simple and effective manner

Development and validation of stability-indicating methods for determination of torsemide

Four sensitive and precise methods for determination of torsemide in presence of its degradation product and in pharmaceutical formulation were developed and validated. Method A is the second derivative spectrophotometry at 262.4 nm with mean percentage recoveries 100.06±0.75. Method B is first derivative of the ratio spectra spectrophotometry, at 232.4, 244.6 nm and at the total peak amplitude from the maximum at 232.4 nm to the minimum at 244.6 nm (1DD232.4+244.6nm). Method C is a TLC-densitometric one, for torsemide separation using acetone : chloroform : ethyl acetate (4:4:2 v/v) as a developing system. Method D is HPLC one, it provides complete separation of torsemide from its degradation product on C8 column with UV detection at 287 nm and recovery 99.98±0.76. The proposed methods have been successfully applied to the analysis of torsemide in pharmaceutical formulations without interference from other additives and the results were statistically compared with the official method. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v30i1.