title: Activity of artemether and mefloquine against juvenile and adult Schistosoma mansoni in athymic and immunocompetent NMRI mice.
abstract: Immune effector mechanisms can enhance the activity of antischistosomal drugs. We examined the in vivo effect of single oral doses of the antimalarials artemether (400 mg/kg) and mefloquine (200 mg/kg), recently described to have promising antischistosomal properties, against juvenile and adult Schistosoma mansoni in T cell-deficient and in comparably infected age- and sex-matched immunologically intact control mice. Artemether and mefloquine are equally effective in athymic and immunocompetent mice. Artemether treatment resulted in total and female worm burden reductions ranging between 71.1% and 85.3%, whereas mefloquine achieved total and female worm burden reductions of 80.4-97.8%. In conclusion, artemether and mefloquine act T-cell independently and no synergistic interaction with the immune response was involved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, Switzerland. jennifer.keiser@unibas.ch
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Keiser
authors.forename: Mireille
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Doenhoff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000077549:Artemether; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D007121:Immunocompetence; D008297:Male; D015767:Mefloquine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D012550:Schistosoma mansoni / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents; D037621:Artemisinins; D000077549:Artemether; D015767:Mefloquine