Nematicidal Potentiality of Four Marine Molluscans' Defensive Secretions From the Red Sea Against Syphacia obvelata (Nematoda: Oxyuridae) In Vitro.

The continuous requirement to substitute safe and affordable alternatives for helminth medications, as well as address the resistance of some used drug classes, introduced bioactive products derived from marine animals into the field of competition; however, almost all the previous research only focused on their impact on bacterial and protozoal infection. In the present work, we investigated the potential in vitro nematocidal effect of the aqueous extract of defense secretions for four species of marine mollusks: two cephalopods, namely the cuttlefish Sepia pharaonis and the common Octopus Octopus vulagris and two gastropods, the sea hare Aplysia argus and the sea slug Berthillina citrina, against the adult murine pinworm Syphacia obvelata. Data showed dose and time efficacy in all examined extracts. The sea slug's skin acid secretion has the highest impact, causing death in the cultivated worms, followed by the ink of the sea hare, the common octopus and the cuttlefish, where LC90 after 10 h of exposure were 250, 290, 316, and 391 µg/mL, respectively. Comparatively with the control and albendazole‐treated groups, the skin acid secretion of the sea slug caused the highest levels of the antioxidant enzymes SOD, Cat and GSH‐PX; however, albendazole prompted the highest level of GSH‐PX enzyme in all experimental groups. Summary: The study focuses on the potential anthelminthic properties of marine molluscans' bioactive materials.Significant in vitro nematocidal activity against pinworms was demonstrated by the aqueous extract of skin acid secretion of the sea slug, Berthillina citrina and ink of the sea hare, Aplysia argus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]