Name:Afraa Tajelsir Mohamed Elata
Affiliation: NRCPD, Research Unit for Advanced Preventive Medicine
Position: Foreign Visiting Researcher
Term: October 2020 to March 2021
Host researcher: Professor Shin-ichiro Kawazu, Assistant Professor Keisuke Suganuma
Circumstances of application:
During my study at NRCPD for my doctoral degree, I have conducted epidemiological studies on selected hemoprotozoan parasites including Trypanosoma spp., Theileria equi, and Babesia caballi. After finishing studying epidemiology, why not to perform another research in a different area of interest? That was to evaluate the curative and protective potential of some dietary supplements against Trypanosoma spp. and Babesia spp. Thus, I applied for the Foreign Visiting Researcher position.
Research activity in NRCPD:
Under supervision of Prof. Shin-ichiro Kawazu, and Assistant Professor Keisuke Suganuma, I performed in vivo experiments to evaluate the curative and protective potential of some dietary supplements against Trypanosoma congolense and Babesia microti. In this study, I evaluated different concentrations of the supplement in T. congolense– and B. microti-infected BALB/c mice. Treatment with specific doses of the supplement has resulted in a significant lower parasitemia, improvement in the body weight loss, and inhibition in the progression of anemia in B. microti-infected mice, which can be concluded that this combination is effective as a supportive treatment in B. microti-infected mice as an experimental animal model of B. bovis. However, the combination did not show any evidence to be effective against T. congolense.
Future prospects:
By completing my PhD in NRCPD focusing on epidemiology, followed by participating in another research project related to the evaluation of drug candidates, I would like to combine all knowledge and experience that I gained at NRCPD based on the guidance and support of my supervisors, which is highly appreciated, and apply that to improve the research quality in the area of preventive medicine by reflecting such experience when I go back to my country, trying to get as much benefits as possible of this application through my work as veterinarian, researcher, and a faculty staff member.