ASSESSMENT OF ALBENDAZOLE RESISTANCE IN FASCIOLA HEPATICA

1LAURA CEBALLOS, 1MARIANA BALLENT, 1LAURA MATE, 1LAURA MORENO, 2RODRIGO SANABRIA, 1CARLOS LANUSSE, 1LUIS ALVAREZ.

León

Congreso; Global challenges in neglected tropical diseases; 2016

Universidad de León

The main goals of the current work were to confirm the albendazole (ABZ) resistance status of a Fasciola hepatica isolate using the egg hatch test (EHT), and to compare the gene expression profiles of the efflux transporter, P-glycoprotein (P-gp), in the same specimens of F. hepatica recovered from ABZ treated or untreated control animals. Metacercariae of a F. hepatica isolated previously classified as ABZ-resistant by the EHT were used to artificially infect eight (8) healthy sheep. Sixteen (16) weeks after infection, animals were randomly distributed either in an untreated control or in an ABZ-treated (7.5 mg/kg) group. The fluckicidal efficacy of ABZ was assessed by the comparison of the number of flukes recovered from untreated and treated sheep at 7 days post-treatment. Additionally, adults F. hepatica specimens from both experimental groups were used to determine the P-gp gene expression profiles by real-time PCR, using GAPDH as a reference gene. No statistical differences were observed in the number of adult liver flukes between untreated (18.5 ± 3.6) and ABZ-treated group (18.2 ± 8.5, P