Rashidi Sajad, Fernández-Rubio Celia, Mansouri Reza, Ali-Hassanzadeh Mohammad, Ghani Esmaeel, Karimazar Mohammadreza, Manzano-Román Raúl, Nguewa Paul
Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
ISTUN Institute of Tropical Health, Department of Microbiology and Parasitology. IdiSNA (Navarra Institute for Health Research), University of Navarra, c/ Irunlarrea 1, 31008, Pamplona, Spain.
Parasitol Res. 2022 Jan;121(1):49-62. doi: 10.1007/s00436-021-07400-8. Epub 2022 Jan 6.
The current drug treatments against protozoan parasitic diseases including Chagas, malaria, leishmaniasis, and toxoplasmosis represent good examples of drug resistance mechanisms and have shown diverse side effects. Therefore, the identification of novel therapeutic strategies and drug compounds against such life-threatening diseases is urgent. According to the successful usage of selenium (Se) compounds-based therapy against some diseases, this therapeutic strategy has been recently further underlined against these parasitic diseases by targeting different parasite´s essential pathways. On the other hand, due to the important functions played by parasite selenoproteins in their biology (such as modulating the host immune response), they can be also considered as a novel therapeutic strategy by designing specific inhibitors against these important proteins. In addition, the immunomodulatory potentiality of these compounds to trigger T helper type 1 (Th1) cells and cytokine-mediated immune response for the substantial induction of proinflammatory cytokines, thus, Se, selenoproteins, and parasite selenoproteins could be further investigated to find possible vaccine antigens. Herein, we collect and present the results of some studies regarding Se-based therapy against protozoan parasitic diseases and highlight relevant information and some viewpoints that might be insightful to advance toward more effective studies in the future.
目前针对包括恰加斯病、疟疾、利什曼病和弓形虫病在内的原生动物寄生虫病的药物治疗是耐药机制的典型例子，并且已显示出多种副作用。因此，迫切需要确定针对此类危及生命疾病的新型治疗策略和药物化合物。根据基于硒（Se）化合物的疗法在某些疾病治疗中的成功应用，最近通过针对不同寄生虫的关键途径，这种治疗策略在这些寄生虫病治疗中得到了进一步强调。另一方面，由于寄生虫硒蛋白在其生物学过程中发挥的重要功能（如调节宿主免疫反应），通过设计针对这些重要蛋白质的特异性抑制剂，它们也可被视为一种新型治疗策略。此外，这些化合物具有免疫调节潜力，可触发1型辅助性T细胞（Th1）并介导细胞因子介导的免疫反应，从而大量诱导促炎细胞因子，因此，硒、硒蛋白和寄生虫硒蛋白可进一步研究以寻找可能的疫苗抗原。在此，我们收集并展示了一些关于基于硒的疗法治疗原生动物寄生虫病的研究结果，并突出了相关信息以及一些观点，这些信息和观点可能对推动未来更有效的研究具有启发意义。
