Assessment of Antibilharzial and Biochemical Effects of Triclabendazol in Experimental Schistomiasis

Schistomiasis is one of the major public health problems, and for more than two decades Praziquntel (PZQ) has remained the drug of choice for its treatment. However, studies proved that reliance on one drug raised the concern of development of tolerance or even resistance. The present work aimed at studying the effect of different schedules of the flukicidal drug triclabendazole (TCBZ), in a dose of 120mg/kg body weight, on Schistoma mansoni worm load, female fecundity and egg deposition in liver and intestine of infected mice, and at studying its biochemical toxic effects on some liver enzymes activities.The present findings indicated that the administration of TCBZ to mice infected with Egyptian S.mansoni strain was not effective except when the drug was given after the start of egg shedding in the stools. However, the antischitosomal effect was moderate as the results showed 50% reduction in worm burden and around 40% reduction in liver and intestinal egg loads. On the other hand, the impact on oogram pattern was not clear except regarding the percentage of dead ova which was much higher than the corresponding control. As regards the biochemical parameters studied, no change in the activity of all tested enzymes was observed. However, animals which received two doses of the drug after the start of egg shedding exhibited 24% reduction in alanine transaminase (ALT) activity. In conclusion, our results indicated that, still, there is no alternative to prazquantel and there is an urgent need for discovery of new antischistosomal drugs. In addition studying different combinations and schedules of the already available drugs as artemether and TCBZ is recommended.