Specific drugs, most of them
heterocyclic compounds, are leading in the
therapy of
parasitic infections despite their relative toxicity and potent mutagenicity. In some
parasitic diseases chemotherapy is of low efficacy (hydatid and
multilocular echinococcosis,
African trypanosomiasis) or practically absent (
American trypanosomiasis) mostly due to suppression or distortion of an immune response. Methods of immunocorrection using recombinant
cytokines (
interleukins,
interferons) or their inducers are to be borrowed from the practice of treatment of oncological, lymphoproliferative diseases and other immune deficiencies. For instance,
alpha-interferon and
gamma-interferon inducers should be used in
echinococcosis, where, as our studies have shown, the production of these
cytokines is markedly suppressed. The enforcement of chemotherapeutic effect by "parachemotherapy" (Sh. D. MoshkovskiÄ, 1944), the effect of nonspecific pharmacological drugs upon the cells and tissues damaged by parasites (like Ca2+ transport blockers in
drug-resistant
falciparum malaria), should be used, for instance, recombinant
gamma-interferon plus specific drugs in
toxoplasmosis. Modern methods of
immunotherapy based on the molecular mechanisms of a host-parasite relationship should be created, for instance,
monoclonal antibodies to C3 receptors of membranes of cells invaded with Toxoplasma gondii.
Immunotoxins such as
monoclonal antibodies to myoblast receptors conjugated to 5-nitroimidazolyl-thiadiazole in
Chagas' disease should be tested. The above mentioned
biological approaches should increase the efficacy of
chemotherapy in
parasitic diseases with smaller amounts of specific drugs and less courses of treatment.