Abstract
Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a serious helminthic zoonosis caused by Echinococcus granulosus metacestode worldwide. The current chemotherapy of CE is mainly based on albendazole (ABZ). However, more than 20% CE cases failed to such chemotherapy. Thus, novel and more efficient treatment options are urgently needed. This study was to evaluate the in vivo efficacy of combined ABZ-interferon (IFN)-α treatment for CE in mice. After 5 months of secondary infection with protoscoleces, mice were randomly allocated into four groups: ABZ-treated group, IFN-α-treated group, ABZ+IFN-α group, and untreated control group. Drugs in diverse treated groups were respectively administered for 2 months. Mice were then euthanized and associated indications were investigated to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy. ABZ+IFN-α induced a significant reduction of the number, size, as well as weight of cysts, compared with that in the ABZ (p < 0.05) or untreated group (p < 0.01), respectively. This effect was associated with ultrastructural modification of the cyst in the ABZ+IFN-α group. Interestingly, significant decrease of IL (interleukin)-10 in serum and in vitro production by spleen cells with ABZ+IFN-α treatment was observed in comparison with untreated control (p < 0.01). Serum IgE, IgG, and subsets were respectively decreased in ABZ+IFN-α treatment, compared with that in the control group (p < 0.01). In conclusion, our findings demonstrated that combination of ABZ with IFN-α may contribute to an efficient therapeutic regimen of human and animal CE.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the International S&T Cooperation Program of China (ISTCP) (Grant No. 2011DFA32740).
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SZ, BL, and HW designed and wrote the paper. SZ, BL, HW, YZ, LS, and XZ performed the research.
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Zhang, S., Zhou, Y., Su, L. et al. In vivo evaluation of the efficacy of combined albedazole-IFN-α treatment for cystic echinococcosis in mice. Parasitol Res 116, 735–742 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-016-5339-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-016-5339-0