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Ultrastructural Alterations of the Human Pathogen Giardia intestinalis after Drug Treatment

This review presents the main cell characteristics altered after in vitro incubation of the parasite with commercial drugs used to treat the disease caused by Giardia intestinalis. This important intestinal parasite primarily causes diarrhea in children. Metronidazole and albendazole are the primary...

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Autores principales: Benchimol, Marlene, Gadelha, Ana Paula, de Souza, Wanderley
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10302959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37375500
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12060810
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author Benchimol, Marlene
Gadelha, Ana Paula
de Souza, Wanderley
author_facet Benchimol, Marlene
Gadelha, Ana Paula
de Souza, Wanderley
author_sort Benchimol, Marlene
collection PubMed
description This review presents the main cell characteristics altered after in vitro incubation of the parasite with commercial drugs used to treat the disease caused by Giardia intestinalis. This important intestinal parasite primarily causes diarrhea in children. Metronidazole and albendazole are the primary compounds used in therapy against Giardia intestinalis. However, they provoke significant side effects, and some strains have developed resistance to metronidazole. Benzimidazole carbamates, such as albendazole and mebendazole, have shown the best activity against Giardia. Despite their in vitro efficacy, clinical treatment with benzimidazoles has yielded conflicting results, demonstrating lower cure rates. Recently, nitazoxanide has been suggested as an alternative to these drugs. Therefore, to enhance the quality of chemotherapy against this parasite, it is important to invest in developing other compounds that can interfere with key steps of metabolic pathways or cell structures and organelles. For example, Giardia exhibits a unique cell structure called the ventral disc, which is crucial for host adhesion and pathogenicity. Thus, drugs that can disrupt the adhesion process hold promise for future therapy against Giardia. Additionally, this review discusses new drugs and strategies that can be employed, as well as suggestions for developing novel drugs to control the infection caused by this parasite.
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spelling pubmed-103029592023-06-29 Ultrastructural Alterations of the Human Pathogen Giardia intestinalis after Drug Treatment Benchimol, Marlene Gadelha, Ana Paula de Souza, Wanderley Pathogens Review This review presents the main cell characteristics altered after in vitro incubation of the parasite with commercial drugs used to treat the disease caused by Giardia intestinalis. This important intestinal parasite primarily causes diarrhea in children. Metronidazole and albendazole are the primary compounds used in therapy against Giardia intestinalis. However, they provoke significant side effects, and some strains have developed resistance to metronidazole. Benzimidazole carbamates, such as albendazole and mebendazole, have shown the best activity against Giardia. Despite their in vitro efficacy, clinical treatment with benzimidazoles has yielded conflicting results, demonstrating lower cure rates. Recently, nitazoxanide has been suggested as an alternative to these drugs. Therefore, to enhance the quality of chemotherapy against this parasite, it is important to invest in developing other compounds that can interfere with key steps of metabolic pathways or cell structures and organelles. For example, Giardia exhibits a unique cell structure called the ventral disc, which is crucial for host adhesion and pathogenicity. Thus, drugs that can disrupt the adhesion process hold promise for future therapy against Giardia. Additionally, this review discusses new drugs and strategies that can be employed, as well as suggestions for developing novel drugs to control the infection caused by this parasite. MDPI 2023-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10302959/ /pubmed/37375500 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12060810 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Benchimol, Marlene
Gadelha, Ana Paula
de Souza, Wanderley
Ultrastructural Alterations of the Human Pathogen Giardia intestinalis after Drug Treatment
title Ultrastructural Alterations of the Human Pathogen Giardia intestinalis after Drug Treatment
title_full Ultrastructural Alterations of the Human Pathogen Giardia intestinalis after Drug Treatment
title_fullStr Ultrastructural Alterations of the Human Pathogen Giardia intestinalis after Drug Treatment
title_full_unstemmed Ultrastructural Alterations of the Human Pathogen Giardia intestinalis after Drug Treatment
title_short Ultrastructural Alterations of the Human Pathogen Giardia intestinalis after Drug Treatment
title_sort ultrastructural alterations of the human pathogen giardia intestinalis after drug treatment
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10302959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37375500
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12060810
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