Down syndrome (DS) patients have a high risk of opportunistic infections from Candida species. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to assess the prevalence of Candida species in oral cavity of DS patients and investigating of grape seed extract (GSE) as a potential anticandidal agent. Our study included fifty patients with DS and fifty healthy children. Oral tongue swabs were taken from both groups and isolated Candida species were identified. The anticandidal activity of GSE against isolated Candida was studied using agar well diffusion method. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to determine the major alterations in Candida after GSE treatment. GSE was subjected to GC-MS analysis and HPLC analysis. Forty six samples showed growth of Candida in DS group, where as ten samples in control group. The most common pathogenic Candida isolated from DS patients was C.tropicalis (65.2%). GSE showed significant inhibitory activity against C.tropicalis (MIC 30 mg/ml). The SEM showed complete alterations in Candida cell morphology. GC-MS chromatogram of GSE revealed 30 compounds, the major one is (9, 12-Octadecadienoic acid) which confirmed by HPLC chromatogram with a peak at RT 20.311 min. GSE could be a promising anticandidal agent and it may form a primary platform for further toxicological assessment and development of new drugs.
Key words: Down syndrome, Oral Candidal carriage, Grape seed extract, Scanning electron microscope, Gas chromatography-Mass spectroscopy.
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