title: In vitro antimicrosporidial activity of gold nanoparticles against Heterosporis saurida.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Worldwide, there is a need to expand the number of drugs available to treat parasitic infections in aquaculture. One of the new materials being tested is metal nanoparticles, which have unique chemical and physical characteristics owing to their extremely small size and high surface area to volume ratio. We examined the effectiveness of gold nanoparticles against the microsporidian parasite Heterosporis saurida, which causes severe economic losses in lizard fish, Saurida undosquamis aquaculture.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We synthesized gold nanoparticles by chemical reduction of tetrachloroauric acid as a metal precursor. We assessed the antimicrosporidial efficacy of the nanoparticles against H. saurida using an in vitro screening approach, which we had developed previously using the eel kidney cell line EK-1. The number of H. saurida spores produced in EK-1 cells was reduced in a proportional manner to the dosage of gold nanoparticles administered. A cell metabolic activity test (MTT) indicated that the gold nanoparticles did not appear to be toxic to the host cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gold nanoparticles can act as an effective antimicrosporidial agent and hold promise to reduce disease in lizardfish aquaculture. Metal nanoparticles should be considered as an alternate choice for development of new antimicrosporidial drugs to combat disease problems in aquaculture.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Division of Fish Medicine, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria. mona.saleh@vetmeduni.ac.at.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saleh
authors.affiliation: Clinical Division of Fish Medicine, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria. gokhlesh.kumar@vetmeduni.ac.at.
authors.forename: Gokhlesh
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. azema1@yahoo.com.|Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt. azema1@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Abdel-Azeem
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Abdel-Baki
authors.affiliation: Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. guraishi@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Saleh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al-Quraishy
authors.affiliation: Clinical Division of Fish Medicine, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria. Mansour.El-Matbouli@vetmeduni.ac.at.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Matbouli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D005399:Fishes; D006046:Gold; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016816:Microsporida; D016881:Microsporidiosis / Q000628:therapy / Q000662:veterinary*
chemical_list: D006046:Gold