China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Pneumocystis carinii
Published in Peter D. Walzer, Robert M. Genta, Parasitic Infections in the Compromised Host, 2020
Peter D. Walzer, C. Kurtis Kim, Melanie T. Cushion
An earlier report noted that hydroxystilbamidine, a diamidine related to pentamidine, showed activity against rat P. carinii (43). A more recent study explored a variety of cationic compounds with similar structural properties (149). These drugs have been used for many years in the therapy of veterinary African trypanosomiasis, but for reasons of toxicity or lack of potential clinical demand had never been developed for human use. Several of these agents (e.g., diminazene, imidocarb, amicarbalide, quinapyramine, isometamidium) were at least as effective as pentamidine in the treatment of rat pneumocystosis. Further exploration of these compounds or their analogues should be a fruitful area of investigation.
In vivo activity and atom pair fingerprint analysis of MMV665941 against the apicomplexan parasite Babesia microti, the causative agent of babesiosis in humans and rodents
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2023
Mohamed Abdo Rizk, Shimaa Abd El-Salam El-Sayed, Ikuo Igarashi
Babesia microti (B. microti) is a blood parasite that infects rodents and has zoonotic importance [3,4]. In the United States, B. microti is the most common cause of human babesiosis [4]. Imidocarb dipropionate (ID) and diminazene aceturate (DA), two currently available medications for controlling Babesia infection in animals, have shown their limits in terms of toxicity to hosts and parasite resistance [5]. Severe cases of human babesiosis may not respond to treatment with clindamycin, azithromycin, quinine, and atovaquone (AV) [3,4,6]. As a result, finding and developing more effective and safer antibabesial agents has become a pressing public health concern. The Malaria Box, which contains 400 compounds, was created to serve as a starting point for drug development against Plasmodium falciparum and other medically significant diseases [2]. We tested the in vitro inhibitory effects of Malaria Box compounds against the in vitro growth of different Babesia and Theileria parasites because Plasmodium and Babesia parasites belong to the same phylum Apicomplexa and share many essential molecular targets [2,7,8]. Our published in vitro results showed that MMV665941 was the most effective MMV compound identified against bovine Babesia and Theileria parasites [2,7]. MMV665941 is a triarylmethane dye known as methylrosaniline; tris[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]methanol; methylrosanilinum; solvent violet 9; and crystal violet carbinol base, and possessing several medical uses: antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic, anti-helminthic, anti-trypanosomal, anti-angiogenic, and anti-tumor [2].
Management strategies for human babesiosis
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2020
Robert P. Smith, Klaus-Peter Hunfeld, Peter J Krause
Although sporadically observed in immunocompetent patients with viral like illness, almost all cases of B. divergens illness have been reported in asplenic individuals [21,22]. Many B. divergens infections in the past ended fatally with general organ failure occurring four to 7 days after initial presentation of hemoglobinuria. Severely ill B. divergens-infected patients have been reported to have a mortality rate of up to 42% [22,103–108]. Consequently, the status of asplenic B. divergens infected patients is regarded as emergent that requires immediate treatment to arrest hemolysis and prevent complications [3,22]. The combination of clindamycin and quinine for 7 to 10 days (Table 2) dramatically improves disease outcome [1,38,51,60,109]. It is noteworthy that in recent years a more favorable disease outcome has been increasingly reported for B. divergens-infected patients, including those not treated with a full course of clindamycin and quinine (due to quinine side effects) [22,38,105,110]. These findings underscore the impact of improved adjunctive measures provided by modern intensive care medicine, including exchange transfusion [3,22,105]. Exchange transfusion is usually reserved only for the most extremely ill B. microti-infected patients but has been recommended for all severe B. divergens cases [22,103,105,111]. Alternative treatment options for B. divergens infections have been proposed. These include clindamycin monotherapy or imidocarb, in conjunction with the above mentioned adjunctive measures in milder cases (Table 2) [38,62,104,112]. Imidocarb, one of the most effective antimicrobials for use in Babesia-infected animals, is highly active against this organism in vitro. It was used successfully to treat two Irish patients infected with B. divergens but is not yet licensed for use in humans [105]. Atovaquone proved more effective than imidocarb in an experimental B. divergens gerbil model and perhaps should be considered in combination with azithromycin for treatment of B. divergens infections, and more generally for those caused by any Babesia sensu stricto spp [55,112].