The authors report on a series of albendazole drug efficacy trials conducted on schoolchildren infected with Ascaris lumbricoides in Rwanda. The mean efficacy across the study was 75.4 %. While the authors acknowledge that there are a number of confounding factors that could influence such drug efficacy trials in this field environment, the lower-than-expected efficacy raises the suspicion of benzimidazole drug resistance in the study population.
The authors make the point that the ‘rule of 5’ was never originally meant to be used as a Go/No Go decision making step for anti-parasitic drug discovery. They urge the pharmaceutical industry, as well as those involved in academia-based drug discovery, to avoid the application of such stringent criteria that may hinder the development of new anti-parasiticides.
The authors review the transient receptor potential (TRP) channels in schistosomes. These ion channels are critical for transducing sensory signals, and respond to a wide variety of external stimuli. The authors describe the TRP channel gene families in Schistosoma mansoni, and then report on the known effects of TRP channel inhibitors on schistosome motility and viability. The paper highlights the potential of TRP channels as therapeutic targets for control of schistosomes and other parasitic helminths.
Thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) is an important redox regulator in most organisms whose main role is to reduce thioredoxin, a redox protein that, in turn, reduces a large number of proteins and thereby mediates their functions. However, TrxR also reduces compounds other than thioredoxin, so called “subversive” substrates, including oxygen or nitro drugs like metronidazole and furazolidone. These drugs are rendered toxic by reduction of their nitro group. Thus, TrxR has a double role as a potential drug target and as a drug activating enzyme. In this original research article both these roles of TrxR were assessed in the microaerophilic parasite Giardia lamblia.