Cryptosporidium parvum is a protozoan parasite can affect humans, worldwide, causing asympto-matic infections or diarrheal disease, which may be life-threatening in immunocompromised and neo-natal individuals. Mefloquine is one of the most promising anti parasitic drugs. The present report aimed to study the in-vivo efficacy of Mefloquine when applied in immunocompetent and immuno-compromised cryptosporidiosis- infected mice. One week post infection, treated groups received either Nitazoxanide (100 mgKg daily for 5 days) or single dose of mefloquine (400 mg/Kg).Two weeks post treatment, all mice were scarified. Stool samples and intestinal histopathology were examined. For both drugs, immunocompetent groups showed better parasitological clearance than immunocom-poromized one. The Cryptosporidium oocyst reduction rates with Nitazoxanide (NTZ) and Mefloquine were 53.3%, and 61.6% respectively in the immunocompetent groups. The corresponding rates in im-munocompromised groups were 49.93% and 60.03%.for NTZ and mefloquine respectively. A single dose of mefloquine treatment (400mg/kg) resulted in higher oocyst reduction rates than the classic approved anti cryptosporidiosis drug (Nitazoxanide with five days application regimen). The histo-pathological study supported the parasitological findings as mefloquine treated mice tissue showed mild to moderate inflammatory changes while that of other groups ranged from moderate to severe alterations in the mice tissue. Thesresults suggested that mefloquine which is FDA approved, already marketed and commercially available on a global scale has an excellent anti parasitic activity against Cryptosporidium parvum infection with single dose application; which saves time, cost and efforts to search for additional or alternative drugs for treating cryptosporidiosis. More large scale studies are needed to illustrate its dose response relationship using multiple doses regimens, performance and lim-itations on immunocompromized population, synergistic effect with already approved drugs , mecha-nism of action on Cryptosporidium parasite and its possible role in chemoprophylaxis specially for high risk individuals. |
