TITLE:
Diclazuril Protects against Maternal Gastrointestinal Syndrome and Congenital Toxoplasmosis
AUTHORS:
Helieh S. Oz, Thomas Tobin
KEYWORDS:
Diclazuril; Gastrointestinal; Hepatitis; Colitis; Pregnancy; Congenital Toxoplasmosis
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Clinical Medicine,
Vol.5 No.3,
January
24,
2014
ABSTRACT: Background: Toxoplasmosis is a common cause of
foodborne, gastrointestinal and congenital syndrome with particularly severe or
unknown health consequences. There is no safe and effective preventive or therapeutic
modality against congenital toxoplasmosis or to eliminate the persistent
chronic infection. Hypothesis: Diclazuril to be safe in pregnancy and effective
against gastrointestinal toxoplasmosis. Methods: CD1 programmed pregnant mice
were divided into groups and administered a diet containing diclazuril, or sham
control. Treatments were initiated on Day 5 of pregnancy and continued until Day
16 when dams were euthanatized. On Day 8 of pregnancy dams were infected
intraperitoneally with escalating doses of tachyzoites (0, 100, 300, 600) from
Type II strain. Dams were monitored daily for distress, pain, and abortion and
samples collected at the end of the experiments. Results: Infected dams
developed moderate to severe Toxoplasma related complications in tachyzoites dose dependent manner. Animals became
anemic and showed hydrothorax, and ascities. Diclazuril effectively protected
dams from ascities and anemia (p with infiltration of lymphocytes, and
macrophages and microabscess formations in the cryptic structures, with
significant improvement in diclazuril treated animals. Additionally, the number
of fetuses, fetal length and fetal weight were preserved in diclazuril treated
dams. Conclusions: This is the first report describing of diclazuril safety in
pregnancy as well as efficacy against mild to moderate hepato-gastrointestinal
syndrome in dams and fetal toxoplasmosis (Special issue, “Treatment of Liver
Diseases”).