Anthelmintics

The development of anthelmintic resistance has made the search for alternatives to control gastrointestinal nematodes of small ruminants imperative. Among these alternatives are several medicinal plants traditionally used as anthelmintics. This present work evaluated the efficacy of ethyl acetate, acetone, and methanol dried leaf and seed extracts of five medicinal plants were tested in vitro ovicidal and larvicidal activities on Haemonchus contortus.

The first choice for treatment of Clonorchis sinensis infections is praziquantel. Experimental data suggest that artemisinin derivatives are active against C. sinensis. The efficacy of both drugs against clonorchiasis was evaluated in a pilot study in clonorchiasis patients in an endemic area in the North of Vietnam. Twenty-one patients received praziquantel 25 mg/kg o.d. for three days, the regular regimen in that area, and 21 patients were treated with artemisinin 500 mg b.i.d. for 5 days. Faecal egg counts were performed before as well as 6 days and 5 weeks after treatment.

Recently, artemisinin derivatives have been shown to be efficacious in chemoprophylaxis of and chemotherapy for Schistosoma japonicum and S. mansoni infections. Therefore, a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was carried out to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of artesunate plus placebo and the combination of artesunate and praziquantel in the treatment of S. haematobium infections in Gabon.

Artemether, a methyl ether derivative of dihydroartemisinin, not only exhibits antimalarial properties, but also possesses strong activity against schistosomula, the immature stages of a parasitic worm that can cause schistosomiasis. To test if the effect would be similar to that of irradiation with respect to the induction of immunologic protective responses, groups of mice were infected with Schistosoma mansoni cercariae and treated with artemether at 1-3 weeks post-infection.

We examined the effects of praziquantel and the artemisinins on adult Echinostoma caproni. In vitro, both praziquantel and the artemisinins exhibited exposure-response relationships. In vivo, worm burden reductions of 100% were achieved with single oral doses of praziquantel, artesunate, and artemether at 50, 700, and 1,100 mg/kg of body weight, respectively.

Human fascioliasis caused by Fasciola hepatica or Fasciola gigantica is an increasing global problem. The mainstay of current treatment is triclabendazole, but resistance in animals has been described, and it is not available in many countries. The antimalarial artesunate has an excellent safety profile, and there is increasing evidence of its efficacy against other parasites both in vitro and in vivo. We performed a study to investigate the usefulness of artesunate in symptomatic human fascioliasis; 100 patients were enrolled.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of combining artemether (AM) and praziquantel (PZQ) in different regimens for treating acute schistosomiasis japonica. METHODS: We undertook a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial within four specialized schistosomiasis hospitals in the Dongting Lake region, Hunan province, China, between May 2003 and December 2005.

OBJECTIVES: The pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters of artesunate, recently discovered to possess promising trematocidal activity, and its main metabolite dihydroartemisinin (DHA) were determined in rats infected with hepatic and biliary stages of Fasciola hepatica and compared with uninfected rats after single intragastric and intravenous (iv) doses. METHODS: Rats infected with F.

Caused by the Chinese liver fluke Clonorchis sinensis, clonorchiasis is of growing public health importance. Treatment and control of the disease rely on a single drug, praziquantel, and little information regarding combination chemotherapy is available. Here, we evaluated the in vivo efficacy of praziquantel combined with artemether, artesunate, OZ78, and tribendimidine, as well as an artesunate-tribendimidine combination against C. sinensis, in a rat model.

Onchocerciasis control is currently based on mass ivermectin treatment. Unfortunately, this drug can induce serious adverse events (SAEs) in persons with high levels of Loa loa microfilaremia (> 30,000 microfilaria/mL). A means of preventing SAEs would be to treat at risk populations with a drug that would progressively reduce the microfilarial loads before administering ivermectin. Antimalarial drugs are a potential solution because they have shown some activity against various filarial species.