Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Guanabenz repurposed as an anti-parasitic with activity against acute and latent toxoplasmosis

 2015 Aug 24. pii: AAC.01683-15. [Epub ahead of print]

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that persists as a chronic infection. Toxoplasma evades immunity by forming tissue cysts, which reactivate to cause life-threatening disease during immune suppression. There is an urgent need to identify drugs capable of targeting these latent tissue cysts, which tend to form in the brain. We have previously shown that translational control is critical during both replicative and latent forms of Toxoplasma. Here we report that guanabenz, an FDA-approved drug that interferes with translational control, has anti-parasitic activity against replicative stages of Toxoplasma and the related apicomplexan parasite, Plasmodium falciparum (malaria). We also found that inhibition of translational control interfered with tissue cyst biology in vitro. Toxoplasma bradyzoites present in these abnormal cysts were diminished and misconfigured, surrounded by empty space not seen in normal cysts. These findings prompted analysis of the efficacy of guanabenz in vivo using established mouse models for acute and chronic toxoplasmosis. In addition to protecting mice from lethal doses of Toxoplasma, guanabenz has a remarkable ability to reduce the number of brain cysts in chronically infected mice. Our findings suggest that guanabenz can be repurposed into an effective anti-parasitic with a unique ability to reduce tissue cysts in the brain.
Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
PMID:
 
26303803
 
[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That would be great. With the application of guanabenz repurposed, there will be less diseases related toxoplasmosis.

Candy Swift said...
This comment has been removed by the author.