Renard Isaline, Ben Mamoun Choukri
Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Pathogens. 2021 Sep 1;10(9):1120. doi: 10.3390/pathogens10091120.
Babesiosis is an emerging tick-borne disease caused by apicomplexan parasites of the genus . With its increasing incidence worldwide and the risk of human-to-human transmission through blood transfusion, babesiosis is becoming a rising public health concern. The current arsenal for the treatment of human babesiosis is limited and consists of combinations of atovaquone and azithromycin or clindamycin and quinine. These combination therapies were not designed based on biological criteria unique to parasites, but were rather repurposed based on their well-established efficacy against other apicomplexan parasites. However, these compounds are associated with mild or severe adverse events and a rapid emergence of drug resistance, thus highlighting the need for new therapeutic strategies that are specifically tailored to parasites. Herein, we review ongoing babesiosis therapeutic and management strategies and their limitations, and further review current efforts to develop new, effective, and safer therapies for the treatment of this disease.
巴贝斯虫病是一种由巴贝斯属顶复门寄生虫引起的新发蜱传疾病。随着其在全球范围内发病率的上升以及通过输血实现人传人的风险，巴贝斯虫病正日益成为一个备受关注的公共卫生问题。目前用于治疗人类巴贝斯虫病的药物有限，包括阿托伐醌与阿奇霉素或克林霉素与奎宁的联合用药。这些联合疗法并非基于巴贝斯虫寄生虫独特的生物学标准设计，而是基于它们对其他顶复门寄生虫已确立的疗效进行重新利用。然而，这些化合物会引发轻度或严重的不良事件以及耐药性的迅速出现，因此凸显了针对巴贝斯虫寄生虫量身定制新治疗策略的必要性。在此，我们综述了当前巴贝斯虫病的治疗和管理策略及其局限性，并进一步综述了目前为开发治疗该疾病的新的、有效且更安全疗法所做的努力。
