Octaarginine Improves the Efficacy of Nitazoxanide against Cryptosporidium parvum

Cryptosporidiosis is an intestinal disease that affects a variety of hosts including animals and humans. Since no vaccines exist against the disease till date, drug treatment is the mainstay of disease control. Nitazoxanide (NTZ) is the only FDA-approved drug for the treatment of human cryptosporidi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pathogens (Basel) 2022-06, Vol.11 (6), p.653
Main Authors: Nguyen-Ho-Bao, Tran, Ambe, Lum A., Berberich, Maxi, Hermosilla, Carlos, Taubert, Anja, Daugschies, Arwid, Kamena, Faustin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adenocarcinoma
Animals
Cell culture
Cryptosporidiosis
Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium parvum
Disease control
Drug dosages
Drugs
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
In vivo methods and tests
Infections
Malnutrition
Membranes
nitazoxanide
octaarginine
Parasites
Parasitic diseases
Peptides
Permeability
Protozoa
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Summary:Cryptosporidiosis is an intestinal disease that affects a variety of hosts including animals and humans. Since no vaccines exist against the disease till date, drug treatment is the mainstay of disease control. Nitazoxanide (NTZ) is the only FDA-approved drug for the treatment of human cryptosporidiosis. However, its efficacy in immunocompromised people such as those with AIDS, in malnourished children, or those with concomitant cryptosporidiosis is limited. In the absence of effective drugs against cryptosporidiosis, improving the efficacy of existing drugs may offer an attractive alternative. In the present work, we have assessed the potential of the cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) octaarginine (R8) to increase the uptake of NTZ. Octaarginine (R8) was synthetically attached to NTZ in an enzymatically releasable manner and used to inhibit growth of Cryptosporidium parvum in an in vitro culture system using human ileocecal adenocarcinoma (HCT-8) cell line. We observed a significant concentration-dependent increase in drug efficacy. We conclude that coupling of octaarginine to NTZ is beneficial for drug activity and it represents an attractive strategy to widen the repertoire of anti-cryptosporidial therapeutics. Further investigations such as in vivo studies with the conjugate drug will help to further characterize this strategy for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis.
ISSN:2076-0817
2076-0817
DOI:10.3390/pathogens11060653