Systematic review and meta-analysis of artemisinin based therapies for the treatment and prevention of schistosomiasis

Chemotherapy based on repeated doses of praziquantel is still the most effective control strategy against Schistosomiasis, however artemisinin derivatives emerged as a family of compounds with schistomicide activity. The aim of the present work is to compare the efficacy of artemisinin-based therapi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-09, Vol.7 (9), p.e45867
Main Authors: Pérez del Villar, Luis, Burguillo, Francisco J, López-Abán, Julio, Muro, Antonio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antimalarial agents
Antiprotozoal Agents - therapeutic use
Artemether
Artemisinin
Artemisinins - adverse effects
Artemisinins - therapeutic use
Artesunate
Biology
Chemotherapy
Clinical trials
Clinical Trials as Topic
Derivatives
Drug Combinations
Drug Therapy, Combination
Drugs
Humans
Infections
Medicine
Meta-analysis
Parasites
Population
Praziquantel
Praziquantel - therapeutic use
Prevention
Prophylaxis
Pyrimethamine
Pyrimethamine - therapeutic use
Sanderia malayensis
Schistosoma
Schistosoma japonicum
Schistosoma mansoni
Schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis - drug therapy
Schistosomiasis - prevention & control
Sulfadoxine
Sulfadoxine - therapeutic use
Systematic review
Treatment Outcome
Tropical diseases
Urine
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Chemotherapy based on repeated doses of praziquantel is still the most effective control strategy against Schistosomiasis, however artemisinin derivatives emerged as a family of compounds with schistomicide activity. The aim of the present work is to compare the efficacy of artemisinin-based therapies in the treatment and prophylaxis of human schistosomiasis. The design of this work involved a quantitative systematic review and meta-analysis. Retrieval of published studies was carried out through an electronic search of the PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cochrane Library and CINAHL databases. This included reports comparing the therapeutic efficacy of artesunate alone, artesunate plus sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and a combination of artemisinin derivatives plus praziquantel against praziquantel alone on different types of schistosomiasis. Moreover, studies on artesunate and artemether used as preventive drugs were also analyzed against placebo. The primary outcome measure for schistosomiasis treatment was "parasitological cure", whereas for the prophylaxis the outcome evaluated was "infection rate". Our results show that patients treated with artesunate alone have significantly lower cure rates than those treated with praziquantel (OR = 0.27 (95% C.I. 0.13-0.53; p
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0045867