Broadening the spectrum of ivermectin: Its effect on Trypanosoma cruzi and related trypanosomatids
Chagas disease is an endemic American parasitosis, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi . The current therapies, benznidazole (BZN) and nifurtimox (NFX), show limited efficacy and multiple side effects. Thus, there is a need to develop new trypanocidal strategies. Ivermectin (IVM) is a broad-spectrum antipar...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology Vol. 12; p. 885268 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A
28-07-2022
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Chagas disease is an endemic American parasitosis, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi . The current therapies, benznidazole (BZN) and nifurtimox (NFX), show limited efficacy and multiple side effects. Thus, there is a need to develop new trypanocidal strategies. Ivermectin (IVM) is a broad-spectrum antiparasitic drug with low human and veterinary toxicity with effects against T. brucei and Leishmania spp. Considering this and its relatively low cost, we evaluate IVM as a potential repurposed trypanocidal drug on T. cruzi and other trypanosomatids. We found that IVM affected, in a dose-dependent manner, the proliferation of T. cruzi epimastigotes as well as the amastigotes and trypomastigotes survival. The Selectivity Index for the amastigote stage with respect to Vero cells was 12. The IVM effect was also observed in Phytomonas jma 066 and Leishmania mexicana proliferation but not in Crithidia fasciculata . On the epimastigote stage, the IVM effect was trypanostatic at 50 μM but trypanocidal at 100 μM. The assays of the drug combinations of IVM with BNZ or NFX showed mainly additive effects among combinations. In silico studies showed that classical structures belonging to glutamate-gated Cl channels, the most common IVM target, are absent in kinetoplastids. However, we found in the studied trypanosomatid genomes one copy for putative IMPα and IMPβ, potential targets for IVM. The putative IMPα genes (with 76% similarity) showed conserved Armadillo domains but lacked the canonical IMPβ binding sequence. These results allowed us to propose a novel molecular target in T. cruzi and suggest IVM as a good candidate for drug repurposing in the Chagas disease context. |
|---|---|
| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 This article was submitted to Clinical Microbiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology Reviewed by: Esteban Serra, National University of Rosario, Argentina; Ana Lia Mazzeti, Minas Gerais State University, Brazil Edited by: Vilma G. Duschak, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship |
| ISSN: | 2235-2988 2235-2988 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fcimb.2022.885268 |