Evaluation of selected antiprotozoal drugs in the Babesia microti-hamster model.

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Jill, Barb,

Have you read this?

A couple of years ago I tried to investigate tafenoquine (here named WR238605) for Babesia treatment. But I didn't get very far. The drug was not available at the time, nobody seemed interested in testing it against Babesia.

I know tafenoquine is used in malaria prophylaxis and treatment.

Nelly

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=8980761 & dopt=Abstract

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1997 Jan;41(1):91-4.

Evaluation of selected antiprotozoal drugs in the Babesia microti-hamster model.Marley SE, Eberhard ML, Steurer FJ, Ellis WL, McGreevy PB, Ruebush TK 2nd.Division of Parasitic Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia 30341, USA.The presently used therapy for Babesia microti infections, a combination of quinine and clindamycin, does not always result in parasitologic cures. To identify possible alternative chemotherapeutic agents for such infections, we screened, in the hamster-B. microti system, 12 antiprotozoal drugs that have either recently been released for human use or were in experimental stages of development at the Walter Army Institute of Research for the treatment of malaria and leishmaniasis. Several well-recognized antimalarial drugs, such as mefloquine, halofantrine, artesunate, and artelenic acid, exhibited little or no effect on parasitemia. Two 8-aminoquinolines, WR006026 [8-(6-diethylaminohexylamino)-6-methoxy-4-methylquinoline dihydrochloride] and WR238605 [8-[(4-amino-1-methylbutyl)amino]-2,6-dimethoxy-4-methyl-5 -(3-trifluoromethylphenoxy-7) quinoline succinate], produced clearance of patent parasitemia. Furthermore, blood from infected hamsters treated with WR238605 via an intramuscular injection failed to infect naive hamsters on subpassage, thus producing a parasitologic cure. These two compounds merit further screening in other systems and may prove useful in treating human babesiosis.PMID: 8980761 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]