Tribendimidine:New Parasite Drug For Roundworms

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The drug which is used to treat roundworms, albendazole, is often no longer effective against these types of worms due to over use which has caused drug resistance. So it is exciting to see that the Chinese have been studying a new drug that treat some types of these worms:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 17, 2009) — Working with researchers in China, biologists at UC San Diego have discovered how a Chinese drug effective in killing parasitic roundworms works.

Their discovery of the drug's biological mechanism provides important new information about how to combat parasitic roundworms, which infect more than a billion people in tropical regions and are one of the leading causes of debilitation in underdeveloped countries. The researchers detail their findings in the current issue of the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Parasitic intestinal roundworms, such as hookworms—estimated to affect as many as 740 million people worldwide—and whipworms, which infect an estimated 795 million people, are considered by public-health officials to have a combined debilitating impact on human populations that is equal to or great than malaria or tuberculosis. But few drugs have been developed to effectively combat their infection.

"For practical reasons, only one drug, albendazole, is now widely used in administering single-dose treatments to large populations," said Raffi Aroian, a professor of biology at UCSD who headed the research effort. "But because of the enormous numbers of people that need to be treated and the necessity of repeated treatments due to high re-infection rates, the development of resistance to albendazole is a serious threat to large-scale de-worming efforts."

"We are studying this Chinese drug, tribendimidine, that clinically appears to be as good as albendazole," he added.

Developed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Shanghai, tribendimidine has not yet been approved for human use. Recent clinical trials in China and Africa have found the drug to be effective in humans against some roundworm parasites, such as hookworms. Tribendimidine: New Drug Being Tested To Treat Roundworms

But not much is known about the biological mechanisms by which the drug kills roundworms or the biochemical pathways through which roundworms can develop resistance to tribendimidine.

"This information is important for preventing, detecting and managing the resistance that some organisms can evolve to drugs," said Aroian. "It's also important in order to safely administer the drug to large populations and for knowing how to combine tribendimidine with other drugs."

Yan Hu, a postdoctoral fellow from China working in Aroian's laboratory, contacted Shu-Hua Xiao, a professor at the Chinese CDC in Shanghai, and began a two-year series of studies with the laboratory roundworm C. elegans that allowed her to determine tribendimidine's mechanism of action.

She did this by first developing genetic mutants resistant to tribendimidine and later analyzing another set of mutants to two other drugs used to treat roundworms—levamisole and pyrantel. Hu then determined that all of the mutants had the same genetic abnormalities, meaning that the biochemical pathways used to develop drug resistance in the animals were similar in all three. Mutants that develop resistance to albendazole, meanwhile, have a totally different set of genetic abnormalities.

Because levamisole and pyrantel are substantially less effective as albendazole in killing roundworms, these drugs are not the first choice for mass administration of drugs. But the results from Hu and her collaborators suggest that tribendimidine could be effectively used in areas instead of albendazole where parasites are likely to or have already developed a resistance to albendazole. Tribendimidine could also be combined with albendazole, the researchers said, to increase the effectiveness of killing parasitic roundworms, since both drugs have different biological killing mechanisms.

"Tribendimidine is not just a little bit different from albendazole," said Aroian. "It's in an entirely different class of drugs. The fact that tribendimidine is different from albendazole, but has the same level of effectiveness, and is in the same class as pyrantel and levamisole should increase people's comfort level in using this new drug."

The researchers were supported in their study by grants from the National Institutes of Health
The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - San Diego, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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The New Anthelmintic Tribendimidine is an L-type (Levamisole and Pyrantel) Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist | SciVee (The New Anthelmintic Tribendimidiine is an L-type ) (Levamisole and Pyrantel) Nicotinic Acetylocholine Receptor Agonist)

Here’s the complete article discussed in above video:

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases: The New Anthelmintic Tribendimidine is an L-type (Levamisole and Pyrantel) Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist


First Optimal Drug Combination for Roundworms | SciVee (First Opitmal Drug Combination for Round Worms)

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I know there has been some concern expressed about the use of this bacillus on food crops, but perhaps this fear is misplaced. Carla, do you think this could be part of the reason that when we switch to eating more fresh organic foods we start to feel better as it is killing off some of the parasites we may have?

Bacillus thuringiensis Cry5B Protein Is Highly Efficacious as a Single-Dose Therapy against an Intestinal Roundworm Infection in | SciVee

[xiblanque]

Also if one does internet searches using the words "Strongyloids, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention" there are many search results concerning polyparasitism. Many people in these studies had three or more types of helminths infections(worms) and three or more intestinal protozoan infections. Much of these seemed to be food-bourne or arthropod vectored. Wouldn't that be funny if there is a cure that is "Made in China". At the very least it is interesting to note that CCDCP is relatively progressive and open about their issue as compared to our CDC and our issue. I wonder if they are similiar issues.
Xib