Laboratory of Pharmacology, Department of Drug Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal.
i3S, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen 208, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal.
Biomolecules. 2020 Feb 25;10(3):350. doi: 10.3390/biom10030350.
Infections caused by and are classified as Group 1 biological carcinogen and it has been postulated that parasites produce oxysterol and estrogen-like metabolites that might be considered as initiators of infection-associated carcinogenesis. Chemotherapy for these helminthic infections relies on a single drug, praziquantel, (PZQ) that mainly targets the parasite. Additionally, PZQ has some major drawbacks as inefficacy against juvenile form and alone it is not capable to counteract pathologies associated to infections or prevent carcinogenesis. There is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutic approaches that not only target the parasite but also improve the pathologies associated to infection, and ultimately, counteract or/and prevent the carcinogenesis processes. Repurposing the drug in combination of compounds with different modes of action is a promising strategy to find novel therapeutics approaches against these helminthic infections and its pathologies. Here, we emphasized that using antioxidants either alone or combined with anthelmintic drugs could ameliorate tissue damage, infection-associated complications, moreover, could prevent the development of cancer associated to infections. Hence, antioxidants represent a potential adjuvant approach during treatment to reduce morbidity and mortality. Despite the success of some strategies, there is a long way to go to implement novel therapies for schistosomiasis.
和 引起的感染被归类为第 1 组生物致癌物，据推测寄生虫会产生胆甾醇氧化物和类雌激素代谢物，这些物质可能被认为是感染相关致癌作用的启动子。这些寄生虫感染的化疗依赖于一种单一的药物，即吡喹酮（PZQ），它主要针对寄生虫。此外，PZQ 有一些主要的缺点，如对幼体形式无效，而且单独使用它不能对抗与感染相关的病理变化或预防癌变。迫切需要开发新的治疗方法，这些方法不仅针对寄生虫，而且还能改善与感染相关的病理变化，并最终对抗或/和预防癌变过程。重新利用药物与具有不同作用模式的化合物联合使用是寻找针对这些寄生虫感染及其病理变化的新疗法的有前途的策略。在这里，我们强调，单独使用抗氧化剂或与驱虫药物联合使用可以改善组织损伤、感染相关并发症，此外，可以预防与感染相关的癌症的发展。因此，抗氧化剂在治疗过程中代表了一种潜在的辅助方法，可以降低发病率和死亡率。尽管一些策略取得了成功，但要实施血吸虫病的新疗法还有很长的路要走。
