CLOMIPRAMINE AND BENZNIDAZOLE ASSOCIATION FOR THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE EXPERIMENTAL Trypanosoma cruzi INFECTION

MARIANA STRAUSS; M. SILVINA LO PRESTI; PAULA CAROLINA BAZÁN; ALEJANDRA BAEZ; ROMINA FAURO; BLANCA ESTEVES; OLGA SÁNCHEZ NEGRETTE; DAVID CREMONEZZI; PATRICIA A. PAGLINI-OLIVA ; H. WALTER RIVAROLA

PARASITOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam ; Año: 2013 vol. 62 p. 293 - 299

1383-5769

Alternative strategies are being designed to identify candidates among drugs already available on the market that could be used in combination to improve the efficacy of Chagas disease treatment. This work evaluates the effect of the association of clomipramine (CLO) with benznidazole (BZN) for the treatment of experimen- tal Chagas disease in the acute stage, in Swiss albino mice infected with Trypanosoma cruzi Tulahuen strain. Infected mice were treated with CLO 5 mg/kg/day and BZN 50 and 100 mg/kg/day, each separately or togeth- er. Efficacy of the treatment was evaluated through parasitemia, survival, electrocardiography, histopatho- logical studies, serological and PCR assays at 90 days post-infection (dpi). All treatments significantly (P b 0.05) reduced mortality and decreased parasitemia. Histopathological analysis of liver and kidneys of mice treated with CLO and the drug combination showed less injury than mice treated only with BZN. The lower dose of BZN (50 mg/kg/day) combined with CLO showed the same efficacy as the habitual dose of BZN (100 mg/kg/day) combined with CLO. The therapeutic results from the combination of BZN with CLO presented lesser side effects than the treatment with BZN.