Herniaria hemistemon J.Gay is widely used in folk medicine to treat hernia. The present study aimed to annotate the phytoconstituents of H. hemistemon aerial-part extract and investigate its in vivo anticryptosporidial activity. The chemical characterization was achieved via the LC–ESI–MS/MS technique resulting in the annotation of 37 phytocompounds comprising flavonoids and phenolic acids. Regarding the anticryptosporidial activity, fifty dexamethasone-immunosuppressed mice were separated into five groups: GI, un-infected (normal control); GII, infected but not treated (model); GIII, infected and received NTZ, the reference drug; GIV, infected and received H. hemistemon extract (100 mg/kg); and GV, infected and received H. hemistemon extract (200 mg/kg). When GIII, GIV, and GV were compared to GII, parasitological analyses displayed highly significant differences in the mean numbers of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts in the stool between the different groups. GV demonstrated the highest efficacy of 79%. Histopathological analyses displayed improvement in the small intestine and liver pathology in the treated groups (GIII, IV, and V) related to the model (GII), with GV showing the highest efficacy. Moreover, the docking-based study tentatively highlighted the potential of benzoic acid derivatives as lactate dehydrogenase inhibitors. The docked compounds showed the same binding interactions as oxamic acid, where they established H-bond interactions with ARG-109, ASN-140, ASP-168, ARG-171, and HIS-195. To sum up, H. hemistemon is a promising natural therapeutic agent for cryptosporidiosis.

Cryptosporidium is the causative agent of Cryptosporidiosis, they are apicomplexan protozoan parasites that have the ability to reproduce asexually and sexually to infect the micro-villous border of the gastrointestinal epithelium causing self-limited diarrhea in immune-competent and severe life-threatening diarrhea in immune-compromised individuals worldwide and may encounter fatal complications (Mohammed et al, 2017). Cryptosporidium species are one of the most important waterborne pathogens worldwide, they have been ranked as the sixth most important foodborne parasitic infection of humans and domestic animals and a leading cause of mortality from waterborne gastrointestinal diseases, which can be, transmitted from animals, human to human, water, food, and tends to cause waterborne outbreaks (Zueter et al, 2019).

Enterobius vermicularis (pinworm) is one of the most common nematode infections worldwide.Enterobiasis occurs in both temperate and tropical climates; it is the most common helminthicinfection, and man is the only host particularly school and pre-school aged children ofboth sexes. Occasionally a superficial bacterial infection can occur at the scratching sites of intenseperianal pruritus and genitourinary infections like vulvovaginitis, urinary tract infectionin young girls

This study assessed the clinical response to COVID-19 in patients with positive gastrointestinalparasitic infection.A total number of 100 patients were screened for COVID-19 infection with a nasopharyngealswab and real-time polymerase chain reaction in the time period from August 2020 till August2021. Patient's clinical status was classified according to WHO criteria as asymptomatic,mild/moderate, severe and critical. Fresh stool sample specimens were obtained from all patientsincluded in the study for parasites and ova detection. For all cases clinical and laboratorydata such as age, gender, results of stool analysis and clinical condition were collected, tabulatedand statistically analyzed in corporation with clinical pathology, internal medicine and parasitologydepartments at Misr University for Science and Technology. This study was conductedon 100 COVID-19 patients whose stool specimens were examined for parasitic infections. Theage of the studied patients ranged from 30 to 80 years with 51.21±31.68. They were 44 femalesand 56 males. The severity of clinical condition among COVID-19 patients was significantlydifferent with the different parasitic infection (P value <0.0001). The 72.2% of asymptomaticCOVID-19 patients had positive parasitic infection in their stools, but only 35.5% and 6.1% ofthe patients suffered from mild and severe clinical conditions respectively, had positive stoolresults for parasitic infection. The severity of clinical condition among COVID-19 patientsdidn’t significantly different between the protozoa, helminthic or mixed parasitic species