1.The superior efficacy of chloroquine over buparvaquone in reducing the chronic cerebral Toxoplasma gondii cysts load and improving the ultrastructural pathology in an immunocompromised murine model
Fahmy, M.E.A. ; Abdel-Aal, A.A. ; Hassan, S.I. ; Shalaby, M.A. ; Esmat, M. ; Abdel Shafi, I.R. ; Afife, A.A. ; Shaheen, H.A.A.
Tropical Biomedicine 2023;40(No.1):115-123
Toxoplasma gondii, the etiologic agent of toxoplasmosis, infects about 30 – 50% of the world
population. The currently available anti-Toxoplasma agents have serious limitations. The present study
aimed to investigate the effects of two antimalarials; buparvaquone (BPQ) and chloroquine (CQ), on
immunocompromised mice with chronic cerebral toxoplasmosis, using spiramycin as a reference drug.
The assessed parameters included the estimation of mortality rates (MR) among mice of the different
study groups, in addition to the examination of the ultrastructural changes in the brain tissues by
transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that only CQ treatment could decrease the MR
significantly with zero deaths, while both spiramycin and BPQ caused an insignificant reduction of MR
compared to the infected non-treated group. All the used drugs decreased the number of mature
ruptured cysts significantly compared to the infected non-treated group, while only CQ increased the
number of atrophic and necrotic cysts significantly. Furthermore, both spiramycin and BPQ improved
the microvasculopathy and neurodegeneration accompanying the infection with different degrees of
reactive astrocytosis and neuronal damage with the best results regarding the repair of the microvascular
damage with less active glial cells, and normal neurons in the CQ-treated group. In conclusion, this
study sheds light on CQ and its excellent impact on treating chronic cerebral toxoplasmosis in an
immunocompromised mouse model.


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