| Abstract | The chemotherapeutic activity of minocycline, a semi-synthetic tetracycline analogue, was evaluated in a murine model of toxoplasmosis. A lethal acute toxoplasmosis was produced by injecting 10(5) tachyzoites of the RH strain of Toxoplasma gondii into the peritoneal cavities of Swiss-Webster mice. When infected mice were treated once daily for 12 days, starting 2 h after challenge, the survival and cure rates were 100% and 40% respectively after minocycline alone (100 mg/kg per day), 0% and 0% after pyrimethamine alone (8.5 mg/kg per day), and 100% and 50% after combination of the two drugs at the same dosages. Absolute survival and cure with minocycline were observed when mice were treated with two daily doses of 100 mg/kg for 12 days. Mice chronically infected with a low virulent strain of T. gondii (Me49) showed a significant reduction in the number of brain cysts after three weeks of treatment with 50 mg/kg per day of minocycline. Minocycline serum levels after a single oral administration of 50 mg/kg or 100 mg/kg to normal mice, peaked at 1.8 mg/l and 10 mg/l after 1 h, respectively, and showed an extended half-life. |
| Authors | H R Chang, R Comte, P F Piguet, J C Pechère
(Affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Geneva Medical School, Switzerland.)
|
| Journal | The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy
(J Antimicrob Chemother)
Vol. 27
Issue 5
Pg. 639-45
(May 1991)
ISSN: 0305-7453 ENGLAND |
| PMID | 1885421
(Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
|
| Chemical References |
- Minocycline
- Pyrimethamine
|
| Topics |
- Acute Disease
- Animals
- Chronic Disease
- Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
- Female
- Mice
- Minocycline
(blood, therapeutic use)
- Pyrimethamine
(therapeutic use)
- Remission Induction
- Toxoplasmosis, Animal
(drug therapy, parasitology)
|
