THERAPEUTIC EFFICACY OF RESIQUIMOD ON TREATING CHRONIC TOXOPLASMOSIS IN EXPERIMENTAL INFECTED MICE

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Parasitology

2 Department of Pathology and Public health

3 Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Egypt

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic protozoan infectious disease affects people worldwide with a high
rate of morbidity and mortality. The incomplete efficacy of the approved drugs for the chronic
Toxoplasma gondii infections endangers one-third of the global humans and animals with reactivation.
This is due to the risky complications chronic toxoplasmosis causes.
This study evaluated the TLRs 7/8 agonist, Resiquimod® for treating chronic toxoplasmosis in
BALB/c mice infected with the ME49 strain of T. gondii as compared the traditionally used Pyrimethamine
® & Sulphadiazine®. This was judged by the number of brain cysts, the histpathological
degrees in the brain and retina, expression of the apoptotic marker, caspase-3 compared to
negative and positive controls.
The results showed a statistically significant decrease in the number of brain cysts in resiquimod-
treated mice correlated with the histopathological improvement of brain and retina and
apoptosis.

Keywords