No effective approved drug therapy exists for Cryptosporidium infection of immunocompromised patients. Here we investigated the nonabsorbed anthelmintic drug pyrvinium pamoate for inhibition of the growth of the intestinal protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium parvum. The concentration of pyrvinium that effected 50% growth inhibition in human enterocytic HCT-8 cells by a quantitative alkaline phos...

Metabolic adaptation to limited supplies of oxygen and nutrients plays a pivotal role in health and disease. Heart attack results from insufficient delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the heart, where cardiomyocytes die and cardiac fibroblasts proliferate--the latter causing scar formation, which impedes regeneration and impairs contractility of the heart. We postulated that cardiac fibroblasts...

HuR, an RNA-binding protein, post-transcriptionally regulates nearly 4% of encoding proteins implicated in cell survival. Here we show that HuR is required for the efficacy of chemotherapies in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. We identify pyrvinium pamoate, an FDA-approved anthelminthic drug, as a novel HuR inhibitor that dose-dependently inhibited cytoplasmic accumulation of HuR. Combining...

The serotonin receptor 2C plays a central role in mood and appetite control. It undergoes pre-mRNA editing as well as alternative splicing. The RNA editing suggests that the pre-mRNA forms a stable secondary structure in vivo. To identify substances that promote alternative exons inclusion, we set up a high-throughput screen and identified pyrvinium pamoate as a drug-promoting exon inclusion wi...

Androgen receptor (AR) inhibitors are used to treat multiple human diseases, including hirsutism, benign prostatic hypertrophy, and prostate cancer, but all available anti-androgens target only ligand binding, either by reduction of available hormone or by competitive antagonism. New strategies are needed, and could have an important impact on therapy. One approach could be to target other cell...

in this study oxyuris and ascaris infections alone or in combination were treated with vanapar a combination of pyrvinium pamoate and piperazine administered in two successive daily doses. this resulted in a 100% cure rate of oxyuriasis as well as a substantial reduction in ova count for ascaris, amounting to 97% success rate in achieving ova count reduction. vanapar was highly effective for th...

We identified pyrvinium pamoate, an old anthelminthic medicine, which preferentially inhibits anchorage-independent growth of cancer cells over anchorage-dependent growth (approximately 10 fold). It was also reported by others to have anti-tumor activity in vivo and selective toxicity against cancer cells under glucose starvation in vitro, but with unknown mechanism. Here, we provide evidence t...

A study was undertaken to compare the efficacy of three drugs in the treatment of uncomplicated strongyloidiasis in Okinawa, Japan. Two hundred and eleven patients with confirmed Strongyloides stercoralis infection were given either ivermectin, 6 mg in a single dose, albendazole, 400 mg/day for 3 days or pyrvinium pamoate, 5 mg/kg/day for 3 days. For each treatment, the same regimen was repeate...

The mechanism of hypertension-induced renal fibrosis is not well understood, although it is established that high levels of angiotensin II contribute to the effect. Since β-catenin signal transduction participates in fibrotic processes, we evaluated the contribution of β-catenin-dependent signaling pathway in hypertension-induced renal fibrosis. Two-kidney one-clip (2K1C) hypertensive rats were...