Treatment of Murine Toxoplasmosis with Oral and Parenteral Artemether and Following by Detection of B1 Gene by Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qPCR) for Evaluating Parasite Density

BACKGROUND: Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that can infect humans and animals. As the choice drug have shown side effects, development a new drug with low toxicity will be necessary. METHODS: BALB/c mice were infected with tachyzoiets of T. gondii. After treatment by oral and parenteral artemether (250 μg/mice) and sulfadiazine (50 μg/mice), we evaluated the rates of survival in treated and control mice. The fold change of B1 gene (target gene) expression in liver and brain of mice treated with parenteral artemether (i.p.), oral artemether (via gavage) and sulfadiazine, were detected by using the Real-Time quantitative PCR. RESULTS: Both treatment with sulfadiazine and artemether showed significant prolongation in time to death of the infected mice compared to the control group. Median survival days for parenteral artemether, oral artemether, sulfadiazine and control group were 8, 11, 12 and 6 d respectively. Expression of B1 gene in liver and brain of mice after treatment with artemether and sulfadiazine were reduced in comparison to housekeeping gene (β-tubulin gene). The fold change (comparing to control group) for parenteral artemether, oral artemether, sulfadiazine is 0.034, 0.027 and 0.111 for liver and 0.220, 0.425 and 0.366 for brain respectively. CONCLUSION: Artemether is effective to control the tachyzoites of T. godii in vivo conditions and oral treatment is more effective than parenteral treatment. Due to its low cytotoxicity and its high effective action against the tachyzoietes of T. godii in susceptible animals.