Institute of Parasitology, Biomedical Research Center Seltersberg (BFS), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Schubertstr. 81, D-35392 Giessen, Germany.
Institute of Parasitology, Biomedical Research Center Seltersberg (BFS), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Schubertstr. 81, D-35392 Giessen, Germany.
Int J Parasitol. 2022 Mar;52(4):211-215. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2021.10.008. Epub 2021 Nov 24.
Schistosomiasis, caused by schistosome parasites, is a neglected tropical disease affecting humans and animals. There is no vaccine available yet, and fear of upcoming resistance against the only widely used drug, praziquantel, is omnipresent. Previously, we showed that imatinib (Gleevec), an anticancer drug, affected schistosome physiology and caused the death of adult Schistosoma mansoni in vitro. Here, we present the first known evidence that one effect of imatinib is the induction of autophagy in S. mansoni. Furthermore, worms co-treated with imatinib and bafilomycin A1, a late-phase autophagy inhibitor, reversed imatinib-induced autophagy and its antischistosomal effects as revealed by phenotypic and molecular analyses.
血吸虫病由血吸虫寄生虫引起，是一种影响人类和动物的被忽视的热带病。目前尚无可用的疫苗，而且人们普遍担心对唯一广泛使用的药物吡喹酮产生抗药性。此前，我们已经表明，抗癌药物伊马替尼（格列卫）会影响血吸虫的生理机能，导致曼氏血吸虫在体外成虫死亡。在这里，我们首次提供了已知的证据，证明伊马替尼的一个作用是诱导曼氏血吸虫的自噬。此外，用伊马替尼和巴弗洛霉素 A1（晚期自噬抑制剂）共同处理的蠕虫逆转了伊马替尼诱导的自噬及其抗血吸虫作用，这一点从表型和分子分析中得到了证实。
