background cellular level of enzyme activity can serve as a reliable biomarker in the event of environmental/chemical insults. objectives the present study investigated time-dependent alterations of erythrocyte glutathione s-transferase (ery-gst) activity of non-malarious guinea pigs (cavia tschudii) administered with pyrimethamine/sulfadoxine and artemether/lumefantrine combination therapies. ...

Analysis of a genetic cross of Plasmodium falciparum and of independent parasite isolates from Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America indicates that resistance to pyrimethamine, an antifolate used in the treatment of malaria, results from point mutations in the gene encoding dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (EC 1.5.1.3 and EC 2.1.1.45, respectively). Parasites having a mutation f...

The efficacy of prolonged administration of azithromycin and pyrimethamine was evaluated in mice experimentally infected with cystogenic strain of Toxoplasma gondii. The animals were intraperitoneally inoculated with one cyst of T. gondii and after 20 days were allocated into four groups: GI, infected without treatment; GII, infected and treated with the association of pyrimethamine (12.5 mg/kg...

Glutathione plays a central role in maintaining cellular redox homeostasis, and modulations to this status may affect malaria parasite sensitivity to certain types of antimalarials. In this study, we demonstrate that inhibition of glutathione biosynthesis in the Plasmodium berghei ANKA strain through disruption of the γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ-GCS) gene, which encodes the first and rate-...

The in vitro sensitivity to chloroquine and pyrimethamine of 19 culture-adapted southern African reference isolates of Plasmodium falciparum was determined using a 48-hour assay. Four isolates collected in KwaZulu, Natal, were sensitive to chloroquine, and one of these was sensitive to the drug in vivo. Eight isolates from KwaZulu or Mozambique were resistant to chloroquine in vitro. Six of the...

To the Editor: Many patients in Africa present with HIV for the first time when they develop an opportunistic infection such as toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE). Optimal management of opportunistic infections such as TE is important in improving health and allowing patients to benefit from the expanding roll-out of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).1-3 Possible treatment regimens for TE...

Despite recent advances in burn wound management, sepsis remains the main cause of death in patients resuscitated after major thermal injury. Increased susceptibility to infections has been related to severe suppression of the immune system.The aim of this study was to induce immune suppression with blister fluid injection, and to modulate immune response by use of cimetidine and pyrimethamine ...

BACKGROUND The exacting nutritional requirements and complicated life cycles of parasites mean that they are not always amenable to high-throughput drug screening using automated procedures. Therefore, we have engineered the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to act as a surrogate for expressing anti-parasitic targets from a range of biomedically important pathogens, to facilitate the rapid identif...