Veterinary School, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, San Borja, Lima, Peru.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2010 Feb 23;4(2):e616. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0000616.
Cystic Echinococosis (CE) is a zoonotic disease caused by larval stage Echinococcus granulosus. We determined the effects of high dose of Oxfendazole (OXF), combination Oxfendazole/Praziquantel (PZQ), and combination Albendazole (ABZ)/Praziquantel against CE in sheep.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A randomized placebo-controlled trial was carried out on 118 randomly selected ewes. They were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: 1) placebo; 2) OXF 60 mg/Kg of body weight (BW) weekly for four weeks; 3) ABZ 30 mg/Kg BW + PZQ 40 mg/Kg BW weekly for 6 weeks, and 4) OXF 30 mg/Kg BW+ PZQ 40 mg/Kg BW biweekly for 3 administrations (6 weeks). Percent protoscolex (PSC) viability was evaluated using a 0.1% aqueous eosin vital stain for each cyst. "Noninfective" sheep were those that had no viable PSCs; "low-medium infective" were those that had 1% to 60% PSC viability; and "high infective" were those with more than 60% PSC viability. We evaluated 92 of the 118 sheep. ABZ/PZQ led the lowest PSC viability for lung cysts (12.7%), while OXF/PZQ did so for liver cysts (13.5%). The percentage of either "noninfective" or "low-medium infective" sheep was 90%, 93.8% and 88.9% for OXF, ABZ/PZQ and OXF/PZQ group as compared to 50% "noninfective" or "low-medium infective" for placebo. After performing all necropsies, CE prevalence in the flock of sheep was 95.7% (88/92) with a total number of 1094 cysts (12.4 cysts/animal). On average, the two-drug-combination groups resulted pulmonary cysts that were 6 mm smaller and hepatic cysts that were 4.2 mm smaller than placebo (p<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrate that Oxfendazole at 60 mg, combination Oxfendazole/Praziquantel and combination Albendazole/Praziquantel are successful schemas that can be added to control measures in animals and merits further study for the treatment of animal CE. Further investigations on different schedules of monotherapy or combined chemotherapy are needed, as well as studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Oxfendazole in humans.
囊型包虫病（CE）是一种由细粒棘球绦虫幼虫引起的人畜共患疾病。我们旨在确定高剂量奥芬达唑（OXF）、奥芬达唑/吡喹酮（PZQ）联合用药和阿苯达唑/吡喹酮（ABZ/PZQ）联合用药对绵羊 CE 的治疗效果。
方法/主要发现：对 118 只随机选择的母羊进行了一项随机安慰剂对照试验。他们被随机分为以下四组之一：1）安慰剂；2）OXF 60mg/Kg 体重（BW），每周一次，共四周；3）ABZ 30mg/Kg BW+PZQ 40mg/Kg BW，每周一次，共六周；4）OXF 30mg/Kg BW+PZQ 40mg/Kg BW，每两周一次，共三次（六周）。用 0.1%的水合曙红活染剂对每个囊泡进行评估，计算原头蚴（PSC）的存活率。“非感染性”绵羊是指没有活的 PSCs 的绵羊；“低中度感染性”绵羊是指 PSC 存活率为 1%至 60%的绵羊；“高度感染性”绵羊是指 PSC 存活率超过 60%的绵羊。我们评估了 118 只绵羊中的 92 只。ABZ/PZQ 组对肺囊泡的 PSC 存活率最低（12.7%），而 OXF/PZQ 组对肝囊泡的 PSC 存活率最低（13.5%）。与安慰剂组的 50%“非感染性”或“低中度感染性”相比，OXF、ABZ/PZQ 和 OXF/PZQ 组的“非感染性”或“低中度感染性”绵羊比例分别为 90%、93.8%和 88.9%。在进行所有剖检后，绵羊群中的 CE 患病率为 95.7%（88/92），共有 1094 个囊泡（每个动物 12.4 个囊泡）。平均而言，两药联合组的肺囊泡缩小 6mm，肝囊泡缩小 4.2mm，与安慰剂相比（p<0.05）。
结论/意义：我们证明奥芬达唑 60mg、奥芬达唑/吡喹酮联合用药和阿苯达唑/吡喹酮联合用药是成功的方案，可以作为动物控制措施的补充，并值得进一步研究用于治疗动物 CE。需要进一步研究不同的单药或联合化疗方案，以及评估奥芬达唑在人类中的安全性和疗效的研究。
