The Effect of Fluphenazine and Thioridazine on Toxoplasma gondii In Vivo

BACKGROUND Toxoplasma gondii is the most common parasite causing latent cerebral infections in human. It has been shown that some anti-psychotic drugs are able to inhibit the proliferation of the parasite in in vitro study. There is very limited data regarding the inhibitory effect of anti-psychotics on Toxoplasma in in vivo. In this study, we evaluated anti-Toxoplasma activity of fluphenazine and thioridazine drugs on T. gondii in mice. METHODS Mice were divided into six groups: Control, sesame as vehicle, thioridazine 10 mg/kg, thioridazine 20 mg/kg, fluphenazine 0.06 mg/kg and fluphenazine 0.6 mg/kg. They were inoculated intraperitoneally with brain suspension containing tissue cysts of T. gondii Tehran strain. Two months after inoculation, the number of cysts in crushed smears of mice brain were counted microscopically and considered as an indicator of anti-Toxoplasma activity. This work has conducted in Qazvin, central Iran, 2014. RESULTS Our study showed that fluphenazine and thioridazine could not significantly inhibit the brain cystogenesis of T. gondii in mice. However, the number of brain cysts was less at higher dose compared to lower doses for both drugs. CONCLUSION Further studies need to clear the mechanism of different structure of anti-psychotic drugs on activity of Toxoplasma.