Therapeutic efficacy of albendazole (ABZ) microcrystal formulations administered during the parenteral stage of Trichinella spiralis infection to CBi-IGE mice resistant to the parasite

JOSEFINA PRIOTTI; MARÍA C. LAMAS; ANA V. CODINA; DARÍO LEONARDI; LUCILA I. HINRICHSEN; MERCEDES LOCRET; MARÍA D. VASCONI

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LXI Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica (SAIC); 2016

SAIC.SAI.SAFE

ABZ is the most extensively selected drug for oral treatment of trichinellosis, a parasitic disease caused by the helminth Trichinella spp. It is classified as Class II by the Biopharmaceutical Classification System because of its extremely poor aqueous solubility which limits oral absorption. Several strategies have been used to improve the solubility and dissolution rate of ABZ, as the bottom-up technology using different polymers to obtain ABZ microcrystal formulations. The analysis of the in vitro antiparasitic activity of these formulations in the adult form of Trichinella spiralis (Ts) allowed selecting hydroxyethylcellulose (S4A) and chitosan (S10A) based microcrystals as the most active. The aim of this research was to compare the in vivo efficacy of S4A and S10A in the parenteral stage of Ts infection, on the muscular encysted parasite stage. Adult mice of the resistant line CBi/L (CBi-IGE stock) orally infected with 2 L1 larvae/g BW were divided into four groups (n=8 per group): control (C), treated with ABZ (ABZ), with S4A (S4) or S10A (S10). Treated mice were given a daily oral dose (30 mg ABZ/kg BW) on days 27, 28 and 29 post-infection, and were euthanized seven days after the last dose. Muscle worm burden (number of L1 larvae/g muscle weight) and number of dead larvae, identified with the methylene blue supravital staining technique, were studied. The control group showed alower percentage of dead larvae than the treated groups (median, range: C 17%, 0-29; ABZ 32%, 0-37; S4 31%, 14-33; S10 50%, 14-88) though only S10 was significantly different (P