Mode of action of common anthelmintics

Autor: Robert S. Rew
Rok vydání: 1978
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 1:183-197
ISSN: 1365-2885
0140-7783
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2885.1978.tb00326.x
Popis: The primary physiological mode of action of nearly all drugs used to control helminth parasites is not well understood. Examination of the general modes of action in terms of parasite requirements for survival may, however, provide guidelines to continue our present investigations and direct us for future research. Two general areas of drug activity are (1) interference with energy-generating metabolism, and (2) interference with proper neuromuscular coordination. Few exceptions are found to these areas because the target organisms require little else for survival. The target of most previously effective and many presently effective anthelmintics is an adult parasite. Adult helminth parasites must maintain an advantageous feeding site and must transport and metabolize substrates (primarily glucose) to generate life-maintaining energy. Adult worms have almost no other short-term requirements for survival because they have little or no metabolic activity in either lipid synthesis or oxidation, nucleic acid synthesis, or protein synthesis (except egg-laying). Examination of specifics of energy-generating metabolism and putative neurochemical transmitters allows us certain predictions in relating a given drug activity to an individual species. These examinations indicate that such diversity exists among helminth metabolic or nervous systems that a broad-spectrum anthelmintic would most likely inhibit at several sensitive points. Published information on drug action and differences in data interpretation are discussed. Two novel areas for future anthelmintic investigations may be (1) juvenile hormone or ecdysone analogs, and (2) pheromones. A combined empirical and rational approach to the development of new drugs may be the most efficient avenue of future research.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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