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Octaarginine Improves the Efficacy of Nitazoxanide against Cryptosporidium parvum
| Content Provider | MDPI |
|---|---|
| Author | Ho-Bao, Tran Nguyen- Ambe, Lum A. Berberich, Maxi Hermosilla, Carlos Taubert, Anja Daugschies, Arwid Kamena, Faustin |
| Copyright Year | 2022 |
| Description | Cryptosporidiosis is an intestinal disease that affects a variety of hosts including animals and humans. Since no vaccines exist against the disease till date, drug treatment is the mainstay of disease control. Nitazoxanide (NTZ) is the only FDA-approved drug for the treatment of human cryptosporidiosis. However, its efficacy in immunocompromised people such as those with AIDS, in malnourished children, or those with concomitant cryptosporidiosis is limited. In the absence of effective drugs against cryptosporidiosis, improving the efficacy of existing drugs may offer an attractive alternative. In the present work, we have assessed the potential of the cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) octaarginine (R8) to increase the uptake of NTZ. Octaarginine (R8) was synthetically attached to NTZ in an enzymatically releasable manner and used to inhibit growth of Cryptosporidium parvum in an in vitro culture system using human ileocecal adenocarcinoma (HCT-8) cell line. We observed a significant concentration-dependent increase in drug efficacy. We conclude that coupling of octaarginine to NTZ is beneficial for drug activity and it represents an attractive strategy to widen the repertoire of anti-cryptosporidial therapeutics. Further investigations such as in vivo studies with the conjugate drug will help to further characterize this strategy for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis. |
| Starting Page | 653 |
| e-ISSN | 20760817 |
| DOI | 10.3390/pathogens11060653 |
| Journal | Pathogens |
| Issue Number | 6 |
| Volume Number | 11 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Publisher Date | 2022-06-06 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Pathogens Cryptosporidium Nitazoxanide Octaarginine |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
