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The Parasite's Way of Life
Published in Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin, Parasitology, 2023
Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin
Acting on Steenstrup’s hunch, a German physician, Friedrich Kuchenmeister, decided to investigate. He had already observed that these cysts, which he called bladder worms, looked something like small tapeworms. Furthermore, similar bladder worms were typically found in pigs and other animals like rodents that might be described as prey. Tapeworms, on the other hand, were usually seen in dogs, cats and other predators. Might the bladder worms be immature tapeworms that develop into adults when a predator eats an infected prey animal? In 1851, he decided to find out by feeding bladder worms extracted from rabbit muscle tissue to foxes. After he found adult tapeworms in the foxes, he conducted other experiments in which he fed tapeworm segments released in the feces of a dog to a sheep. When he dissected the sheep several weeks later, Kuchenmeister found cysts in the animal’s brain. Finally, he showed that his human patients, whom he knew were often infected with tapeworms called Taenia solium, became infected after eating pork that contained cysts. In a particularly illustrative (some might say gruesome) experiment, Kuchenmeister obtained cysts from raw pork. He then mixed these cysts into food that was destined to be eaten by a condemned murderer. Several days later the prisoner was executed. When Kuchenmeister inspected the dead man’s intestine, he found young adult T. solium.
Candida and parasitic infection: Helminths, trichomoniasis, lice, scabies, and malaria
Published in Hung N. Winn, Frank A. Chervenak, Roberto Romero, Clinical Maternal-Fetal Medicine Online, 2021
Fish tapeworm infection may be asymptomatic or may have mild-to-severe gastrointestinal symptoms. Praziquantel (single 5–10mg/kg oral dose) and niclosamide (single 2-g oral dose) are the most commonly used therapies. Unless infection is severe, anthelmintic therapy is typically delayed until the postpartum period. Diphyllobothriasis may cause vitamin B12 deficiency in pregnancy, owing to malabsorption; therefore, vitamin B12 supplementation is recommended.
Surveillance and Control Programs for Cestode Diseases
Published in Max J. Miller, E. J. Love, Parasitic Diseases: Treatment and Control, 2020
Diagnostic tools for detecting tapeworm carriers are notoriously insensitive.44–47 Single stool examinations may detect less than half of tapeworm carriers; repeat stools, perianal scrapings, and treatment and purge methods are ways to insure diagnostic sensitivity, but do not readily lend themselves to epidemiologic surveys. Unless special techniques were used, intestinal parasite surveys and data from clinical laboratories may either miss altogether or underestimate intestinal taeniasis. Few studies distinguished T. solium from T. saginata infections. Thus, the relatively low reported prevalence of T. solium taeniasis in areas where human cysticercosis is frequent34 must be viewed with skepticism. Of course, demonstration of taeniid eggs does not differentiate between infection by the pork tapeworm from that by the beef tapeworm, which may be locally even more prevalent.48 To date, the most sensitive diagnostic tool for intracerebral cysticercosis is the CT scan, which represents a quantum leap over previous methods.49,50 Such technology is limited to large clinical centers which, in developing countries, are located only in a few of the larger cities.
Emerging hormonal agents for the treatment of prostate cancer
Published in Expert Opinion on Emerging Drugs, 2022
Emily Bochner, Sam Gold, Ganesh V. Raj
Another AR-targeted agent of interest is niclosamide, an oral medication commonly used in the treatment of tapeworms. Niclosamide has a wide range of molecular targets, including Wnt/beta-catenin, mTORC1, STAT3, NF-kB, and Notch pathway signaling [59]. Its oncologic applications and anti-tumor activity have been elucidated in various solid and hematologic tumors. Recent studies have shown the anti-tumor activity of niclosamide in PCa occurs through AR-V7 targeting [60]. As mentioned, the presence of AR-V7 allows for ligand-independent AR signaling. In a key study, Liu et al. found niclosamide can reverse hormone resistance in enzalutamide and bicalutamide-resistant PCa [61]. However, the phase I dose escalation study investigating the use of niclosamide in combination with enzalutamide in men with CRPC, was limited by toxicity and the inability to achieve minimum effective concentration in preclinical studies [62]. Adverse events included nausea, anorexia, weight loss, and vomiting. A phase I trial investigating the safety of reformulated niclosamide in combination with enzalutamide is currently underway (clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03123978). However, achieving optimal niclosamide dosing while balancing adverse events secondary to niclosamide may prove to be a challenge. There is an ongoing phase II study investigating the side effects and efficacy of niclosamide in combination with abiraterone and prednisone in men with CRPC (clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02807805).
Drug repurposing strategies and key challenges for COVID-19 management
Published in Journal of Drug Targeting, 2022
Shubham Mule, Ajit Singh, Khaled Greish, Amirhossein Sahebkar, Prashant Kesharwani, Rahul Shukla
Parasite infections induced by roundworms, pinworms and tapeworms are treated with niclosamide. These are some ’f the drug's primary modes of action which involve prevention of endocytosis-mediated viral entry by inhibiting cathepsin L, while others involve inhibiting (SKP2) S-phase kinases linked protein 2 and prevention of SARS-CoV2 autophagy. The drug causes a conformational modification in the spike protein of the virus, which prevents the virus and endocytosis related ACE2 receptor from binding. Niclosamide, like CQ, has antiviral effects via pH-mediated endocytosis that interferes with SKP2 activity and inhibits SARS-CoV2 replication [145]. Although there is insufficient data for the niclosamide effectiveness against COVID-19, five current RCTs will offer information ’n the drug's effectiveness for the management of COVID-19.
New insights on the Taenia solium tapeworm using molecular tools: age-based human definitive host prevalence and deliberation on parasite life span
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2022
Tiaoying Li, Xingwang Chen, Christine M. Budke, Yuangui Zhou, Mianchuan Duan, Celine Wang, Bo Zhong, Yang Liu, Jianying Luo, Wei He, Jingye Shang, Akira Ito
This is the first study to evaluate the relationship between host age and infection with adult T. solium tapeworms, with infecting species confirmed in all but two taeniasis carriers. Prior data about age-related tapeworm infections are scarce, primarily due to the low number of tapeworm carriers identified in individual studies [13–16]. The largest previous study, which was conducted in Guatemala, showed infections with Taenia spp. tapeworms increasing with age, and peaking in the 30–39 years age group in areas co-endemic for T. solium and T. saginata [6]. This pattern was similar to the current study’s findings for overall taeniasis prevalence. Unfortunately, in the Guatemala study, infecting species was not available for more than one-third of the individuals with taeniasis. However, it was shown that T. solium was the infecting species for more than half of the evaluated tapeworm carriers and that over half of the detected taeniasis cases in these Guatemalan communities were less than 20 years of age [6]. Another study conducted in Ecuador indicated that infection with Taenia spp. also increased with age [8]. However, the study was based on individuals who reported passing tapeworms after treatment rather than those shown to be infected parasitologically.