Enrofloxacin is able to control Toxoplasma gondii infection in both in vitro and in vivo experimental models

Enrofloxacin and Toltrazuril Are Able to Reduce Toxoplasma gondii Growth in Human BeWo Trophoblastic Cells and Villous Explants from Human Third Trimester Pregnancy

“…Next, the cells were treated with sulfadiazine (Sigma), enrofloxacin (Bayer Healthcare, São Paulo, SP, Brazil), or toltrazuril (Bayer Healthcare) for an additional 24 h in RPMI 1640 medium containing 5% FBS as follows: 1.56, 3.125, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100, or 200 μg/mL (Barbosa et al, 2012). At the same time, BeWo cells were also treated with pyrimethamine (Sigma) for 24 h, as follows: 0.0624, 0.125, 0.250, 0.500, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, or 20 μg/mL in RPMI 1640 medium with 5% FBS.…”

“…The round glass slides with adherent cells were washed with sterile PBS, fixed with formaldehyde 10% for 24 h and stained with 1% toluidine blue for 10 s (Barbosa et al, 2008). Next, the cells were counted under a light microscope (BX40, Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) in order to determine the infection index (number of infected cell per 200 examined cells) and T. gondii intracellular proliferation (total number of tachyzoites per 200 examined cells; Barbosa et al, 2012). Three independent experiments of six replicates were performed.…”

“…Also, Artemisia annua infusion treatment was able to decrease the mortality of C57BL/6 mice infected with T. gondii RH or ME49 strains (de Oliveira et al, 2009) and reduced the vertical transmission of the T. gondii ME49 strain in Calomys callosus rodents (Costa et al, 2009). Finally, previous studies have demonstrated the effect of enrofloxacin against protozoan parasites, including T. gondii and Neospora caninum (Gottstein et al, 2005; Delespaux et al, 2010; Barbosa et al, 2012). …”

“…Enrofloxacin was able to control the infection by N. caninum in the brain of pregnant females from the C57/BL6 lineage (Gottstein et al, 2005). In addition, our previous study demonstrated that enrofloxacin was more efficient for the control of the invasion and replication of T. gondii in human fibroblast cells (HFF line) compared to sulfadiazine and pyrimethamine (Barbosa et al, 2012). Furthermore, enrofloxacin was able to reduce the number of parasites and immunopathology in the brain of C. callosus infected by T. gondii (Barbosa et al, 2012).…”

“…Fluoroquinolones are known to inhibit DNA replication from bacteria, since the target is the DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV (Collin et al, 2011; Martins-Duarte et al, 2015). Moreover, many studies demonstrated the effect of enrofloxacin against infections caused by parasite protozoans, although the target of this drug in these protozoans is still unknown (Gottstein et al, 2005; Barbosa et al, 2012). Enrofloxacin was able to control the infection by N. caninum in the brain of pregnant females from the C57/BL6 lineage (Gottstein et al, 2005).…”