The Synaptic Leap

Parasitology Research (17 January 2012), pp. 1-6.

Echinostomiasis is a food-borne intestinal, snail-mediated parasitosis caused principally by ingestion of snails infected with digenean trematodes of the Echinostoma genus. The treatment and control of trematodiasis is usually done by administration of praziquantel (PZQ). In this study, we evaluated the effect on Echinostoma paraensei of different doses of praziquantel through analysis of morphological parameters using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and confocal scanning laser microscopy along with parasitological data. We used 30 female mice aged 4 weeks. Each animal was given 40 metacercarie of E. paraensei by gavage. The animals were divided into five groups, each group containing six animals, where one group was utilized as untreated control. Two weeks after infection, the mice were given praziquantel by gavage at total dosages of 12.5, 25, 50 or 100 mg/kg by body weight. Two days after treatment, the mice were euthanized in a CO 2 chamber for recovery of helminths in the small intestine. The doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg of praziquantel eliminated all the worms. There were significant differences ( p < 0.05) between all the treated groups when compared to the control group. The body morphology showed contraction with vacuolization of the parenchyma, and the spine of the peristomic collar was not evident by light microscopy. The scanning electron microscopy revealed that the other doses caused retraction of spines of the peristomic collar and also the tegument spines at the body edge, as well as the development of vesicles and peeling; all these alterations were more evident at the dose of 25 mg/kg. In turn, the confocal scanning laser microscopy revealed vacuolization and disorganization of spines and vitelline glands. E. paraensei responds differently to experimental treatment with praziquantel according to the doses utilized causing morphological alteration and even worm elimination.
Juliana Ferraz, Joyce Souza, Michele Costa-Silva, Eduardo Torres, André Santana, Reinalda Lanfredi, Arnaldo Maldonado, Juberlan Garcia

Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters (December 2011)

An efficient Synthesis of antischistosomal drug Praziquantel and analogues was achieved and the synthetic route designed was to afford structurally diverse analogues for better structure–activity relationship understanding. Total of nineteen PZQ analogues with structural variations at amide, piperazine and aromatic moieties have been synthesized and fully characterized. Among all the new analogues tested for antischistosomal activity, one dimethoxy tetrahydroisoquinoline analogue and two tetrahydro-β-carboline analogues exhibited modearate activity against adult Schistosomamansoni. Tetrahydro-β-carboline analogues showed moderate activity whereas the presence of p-trifluoromethylbenzoyl and p-toluenesulphonyl moieties resulted in complete suppression of antischistosomal activity.
Partha Sadhu, Singam Kumar, Malapaka Chandrasekharam, Livia Pica-Mattoccia, Donato Cioli, Vaidya Rao

Aquaculture (November 2011)

Aquaculture of tuna has shown exponential growth in the recent years. In association with the global development of tuna aquaculture, problems with parasitic infections have arisen. Among the parasites found on cultured tuna, blood flukes are considered to be a significant threat as their eggs accumulate in the gills and interfere with the gas exchange process. To date, two species of blood fluke from the genus Cardicola have been found in Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis, PBT) cultured in Japan. We conducted an experiment to develop a drug treatment against the blood flukes of cultured tuna. Artificially produced juvenile tuna that were naturally infected with blood flukes were orally administered with anthelmintic praziquantel (PZQ) of 150, 15, 1.5 and 0 mg kg-1 BW for three consecutive days, and differences in the abundance of adults and eggs in the gills were assessed. In the fish given 150 and 15 mg kg-1 BW PZQ, adult worms in the heart ventricle were eradicated by day 8 post treatment with the number of eggs in the gills gradually declining over time. However, small numbers of adults re-appeared by week 3 or 5 post treatment. The drug does not seem to affect eggs as viable miracidia were observed throughout the experiment. Mortalities in the two lower dose groups were significantly higher than the groups in which PZQ doses were shown to be effective. The study empirically demonstrated the efficacy of PZQ on Cardicola blood flukes and that the parasite significantly affects the survival of juvenile PBT. The oral PZQ treatment may be an essential practice for sustainable aquaculture of PBT.
Sho Shirakashi, Melanie Andrews, Yoshiki Kishimoto, Katsuya Ishimaru, Takahiko Okada, Yoshifumi Sawada, Kazuo Ogawa

Parasitology Research (19 October 2011), pp. 1-8.

In this paper, cercariae, schistosomula, and adult Schistosoma mansoni worms were incubated in vitro with the essential oil of Piper cubeba (PC-EO) at concentrations from 12.5 to 200 μg/mL, and the viability was evaluated using an inverted microscopy. The effects of PC-EO at 100 and 200 μg/mL on the stages of S. mansoni were similar to those of the positive control (PZQ at 12.5 μg/mL), with total absence of mobility after 120 h. However, at concentrations from 12.5 to 50 μg/mL, PC-EO caused a reduction in the viability of cercariae and schistosomula when compared with the negative control groups (RPMI 1640 or dechlorinated water) or (RPMI 1640 + 0.1% DMSO or dechlorinated water + 0.1% DMSO). On the other hand, adult S. mansoni worms remained normally active when incubated with PC-EO at concentrations of 12.5 and 25 μg/mL, and their viabilities were similar to those of the negative control groups. In addition, at concentrations ranging from 50 to 200 μg/mL, separation of all the coupled adult worms was observed after 24 h of incubation, which is related to the fact of the reduction in egg production at this concentration. The main chemical constituents of PC-EO were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry as being sabinene (19.99%), eucalyptol (11.87%), 4-terpineol (6.36%), β-pinene (5.81%), camphor (5.61%), and δ-3-carene (5.34%). The cytotoxicity of the PC-EO was determined, and a significant cytotoxicity was only obtained in the concentration of 200 μg/mL after 24 h treatment. The results suggest that PC-EO possesses an effect against cercariae, schistosomula, and adult worms of the S. mansoni .
Lizandra Magalhães, Julia de Souza, Kamila Wakabayashi, Da, Adriana Vinhólis, Karen Rezende, Guilherme Simaro, Jairo Bastos, Vanderlei Rodrigues, Viviane Esperandim, Daniele Ferreira, Antônio Crotti, Wilson Cunha, Silva