Prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure.
Trypanosoma cruzi naturally infects a wide variety of wild and domesticated mammals, in addition to humans. Depending on the infection dose and other factors, the acute infection can be life-threatening, and in all cases, the risk of chagasic heart disease is high in persistently infected hosts. Dom...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:2976ba40ee314c889499cabc2b1b472b 2023-05-15T15:13:21+02:00 Prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure. Juan M Bustamante Angel M Padilla Brooke White Lisa D Auckland Rachel E Busselman Stephanie Collins Elizabeth L Malcolm Briana F Wilson Ashley B Saunders Sarah A Hamer Rick L Tarleton 2022-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010688 https://doaj.org/article/2976ba40ee314c889499cabc2b1b472b EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010688 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010688 https://doaj.org/article/2976ba40ee314c889499cabc2b1b472b PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 10, p e0010688 (2022) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010688 2022-12-30T21:03:01Z Trypanosoma cruzi naturally infects a wide variety of wild and domesticated mammals, in addition to humans. Depending on the infection dose and other factors, the acute infection can be life-threatening, and in all cases, the risk of chagasic heart disease is high in persistently infected hosts. Domestic, working, and semi-feral dogs in the Americas are at significant risk of T. cruzi infection and in certain settings in the southern United States, the risk of new infections can exceed 30% per year, even with the use of vector control protocols. In this study, we explored whether intermittent low-dose treatment with the trypanocidal compound benznidazole (BNZ) during the transmission season, could alter the number of new infections in dogs in an area of known, intense transmission pressure. Preliminary studies in mice suggested that twice-weekly administration of BNZ could prevent or truncate infections when parasites were delivered at the mid-point between BNZ doses. Pre-transmission season screening of 126 dogs identified 53 dogs (42.1%) as T. cruzi infection positive, based upon blood PCR and Luminex-based serology. Serial monitoring of the 67 uninfected dogs during the high transmission season (May to October) revealed 15 (22.4%) new infections, 6 in the untreated control group and 9 in the group receiving BNZ prophylaxis, indicating no impact of this prophylaxis regimen on the incidence of new infections. Although these studies suggest that rigorously timed and more potent dosing regimen may be needed to achieve an immediate benefit of prophylaxis, additional studies would be needed to determine if drug prophylaxis reduced disease severity despite this failure to prevent new infections. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16 10 e0010688 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Juan M Bustamante Angel M Padilla Brooke White Lisa D Auckland Rachel E Busselman Stephanie Collins Elizabeth L Malcolm Briana F Wilson Ashley B Saunders Sarah A Hamer Rick L Tarleton Prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Trypanosoma cruzi naturally infects a wide variety of wild and domesticated mammals, in addition to humans. Depending on the infection dose and other factors, the acute infection can be life-threatening, and in all cases, the risk of chagasic heart disease is high in persistently infected hosts. Domestic, working, and semi-feral dogs in the Americas are at significant risk of T. cruzi infection and in certain settings in the southern United States, the risk of new infections can exceed 30% per year, even with the use of vector control protocols. In this study, we explored whether intermittent low-dose treatment with the trypanocidal compound benznidazole (BNZ) during the transmission season, could alter the number of new infections in dogs in an area of known, intense transmission pressure. Preliminary studies in mice suggested that twice-weekly administration of BNZ could prevent or truncate infections when parasites were delivered at the mid-point between BNZ doses. Pre-transmission season screening of 126 dogs identified 53 dogs (42.1%) as T. cruzi infection positive, based upon blood PCR and Luminex-based serology. Serial monitoring of the 67 uninfected dogs during the high transmission season (May to October) revealed 15 (22.4%) new infections, 6 in the untreated control group and 9 in the group receiving BNZ prophylaxis, indicating no impact of this prophylaxis regimen on the incidence of new infections. Although these studies suggest that rigorously timed and more potent dosing regimen may be needed to achieve an immediate benefit of prophylaxis, additional studies would be needed to determine if drug prophylaxis reduced disease severity despite this failure to prevent new infections. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Juan M Bustamante Angel M Padilla Brooke White Lisa D Auckland Rachel E Busselman Stephanie Collins Elizabeth L Malcolm Briana F Wilson Ashley B Saunders Sarah A Hamer Rick L Tarleton |
author_facet |
Juan M Bustamante Angel M Padilla Brooke White Lisa D Auckland Rachel E Busselman Stephanie Collins Elizabeth L Malcolm Briana F Wilson Ashley B Saunders Sarah A Hamer Rick L Tarleton |
author_sort |
Juan M Bustamante |
title |
Prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure. |
title_short |
Prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure. |
title_full |
Prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure. |
title_fullStr |
Prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure. |
title_sort |
prophylactic low-dose, bi-weekly benznidazole treatment fails to prevent trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs under intense transmission pressure. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010688 https://doaj.org/article/2976ba40ee314c889499cabc2b1b472b |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 10, p e0010688 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010688 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010688 https://doaj.org/article/2976ba40ee314c889499cabc2b1b472b |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010688 |
container_title |
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
e0010688 |
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1766343914140205056 |