Fig. 1

H&E-stained sections of the brain cortical tissue of the various study groups. [a] Group 1 (non-treated non-infected group) showing normal brain tissue. [b] Group 2 (infected non-treated group) showing numerous darkly-degenerated neurons with pyknotic, shrunken deeply-stained nuclei (D), perineuronal halos (arrow heads) and multiple neuroglia (g); [c] Group 3 (albendazole-treated group); [d] Group 4 (curcumin-treated group); [e] Group 5 (dual curcumin and albendazole therapy). All treated groups showed improvement in the cerebral cortical architecture (being most prominent in the dual therapy groups), where most of the neurons are seen exhibiting rounded to oval vesicular nuclei with prominent nucleoli (V). Very few dark neurons (D) can be observed. (Abbreviations: D: Darkly-degenerated neurons, V: vesicular neurons, g: neuroglial cells, c: capillaries, BV: Blood vessel with widened perivascular space (Virchow-Robin space).