title: Chemotherapeutic studies on Litomosoides carinii infection of Mastomys natalensis. 8. The action of furazolidone on adult worms and microfilariae.
abstract: After oral administration of furazolidone in doses of 5 x 50 mg/kg and 1 x 100 mg/kg body weight to Litomosoides carinii--infected Mastomys natalensis microfilaraemia decreased continuously and was reduced by more than 98% 42 days after start of treatment. After the 5-day treatment all adult female and male worms were found dead and encapsulated within 2 weeks, whereas after the single dose 100% of the female parasites were encapsulated 28 days after treatment. In untreated animals quantiative examinations of the intrauterine stages showed an average number of 500 x 103 embryos per adult female worm. Following the 5-day treatment the number of embryos per female parasite was reduced after 42 days to 12.5 x 103, and after the single treatment to 26.9 x 103. By classification into 5 different stages (2- and 4-cell stages, Morula stage, "Horse-shoe" stage, "Ring" and "Brezel" stages, and intruterine microfilariae) an embryogram showed a continuous increase in pathologically-altered embryos during the whole observation period. The 2- and 4-cell stages suffered the most damaged. By 16 days after the end of the 5-day treatment and by 28 days after the single treatment all embryonic stages in the uteri were found to be pathologically altered. Furazolidone possessess high macrofilaricidal activity together with a considerable adverse effect on embryognesis and some delayed effect on microfilaraemia.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001202:Ascitic Fluid / Q000469:parasitology; D001769:Blood / Q000469:parasitology; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D005368:Filariasis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005370:Filarioidea / Q000187:drug effects*; D005664:Furazolidone / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008842:Microfilariae / Q000187:drug effects; D010996:Pleural Effusion / Q000469:parasitology; D012377:Rodentia
chemical_list: D005664:Furazolidone