In vivo activity of albendazole in combination with thymol against Echinococcus multilocularis larval stage.

ALBANI C. M.; PENSEL P.; ELISSONDO M. C.

Congreso; X Congreso de Protozoología y enfermedades parasitarias.; 2014

Human alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is caused by the fox tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis and is usually lethal if left untreated. Infection of intermediate host (rodents and accidentally humans) is initiated by oral uptake of infectious eggs, which upon hatching in the host intestine, penetrates the intestinal epithelium and access to the host organs where undergoes towards the metacestode stage. The current strategies for treating human AE are surgical resection of the parasite mass complemented by chemotherapy with benzimidazoles. Although these drugs inhibit parasite proliferation, they do not cure the disease. Several investigations using in vivo rodent models have been carried out looking for alternative treatment for AE. However, none of the compounds investigated has been translated into clinical application. Recently encouraging findings have been reported using combined drugs albendazole (ABZ)/thymol in vitro. The aim of the current work was to investigate the efficacy of the combination ABZ/thymol on mice infected with E. multilocularis metacestodes. Hydatid cysts developed in all the infected animals involved in the efficacy studies. The application of ABZ and thymol separately or combinated resulted in a statistically significant reduction on the cysts weight (ABZ/thymol group: 1.5±1.4g; ABZ suspension group: 4.69±1.48g; thymol group 3.72±1.25g) compared to those obtained for unmedicated mice (9.07±2.46). Moreover, differences were found on protoscoleces viability recovered from metacestodes. These differences were also verified after SEM analysis of the cysts and protoscoleces from all conditions. In conclusion, the therapeutic efficacy of ABZ/thymol was superior to ABZ suspension or thymol. The work reported here demonstrates that in vivo treatment with ABZ/thymol impairs the development of the AE and we propose that it could be a suitable alternative for treating AE in humans.