Possible in vitro test for screening drugs for activity against Babesia and other blood protozoa

THE normal method of screening compounds for activity against Babesia infections of animals is based in the first instance on testing the compound in laboratory rats or mice infected with B. rodhaini using a regimen similar to that described for the testing of anti-malarial compounds 1 . Most compou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1977-09, Vol.269 (5627), p.407-409
Main Authors: IRVIN, A. D, YOUNG, E. R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Antiprotozoal Agents
Babesia - drug effects
Babesia - metabolism
Blood - parasitology
Diminazene - pharmacology
Drug Evaluation, Preclinical - methods
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hypoxanthines - metabolism
Imidocarb - pharmacology
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Species Specificity
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Summary:THE normal method of screening compounds for activity against Babesia infections of animals is based in the first instance on testing the compound in laboratory rats or mice infected with B. rodhaini using a regimen similar to that described for the testing of anti-malarial compounds 1 . Most compounds screened against B. rodhaini in this way show no activity at all, therefore there would be justification for developing an in vitro test which would greatly reduce the time, cost and numbers of animals involved. We describe here such a test which is applicable to all species of Babesia and which exploits the finding that Babesia parasites readily incorporate hypoxanthine in an in vitro culture system 2 .
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/269407a0