antiprotozoal drug

antiprotozoal drug, any agent that kills or inhibits the growth of organisms known as protozoans. Protozoans cause a variety of diseases, including malaria and Chagas’ disease. While protozoans typically are microscopic, they are similar to plants and animals in that they are eukaryotes and thus have a clearly defined cell nucleus. This distinguishes them from prokaryotes, such as bacteria. As a result, many of the antibiotics that are effective in inhibiting bacteria are not active against protozoans.

Metronidazole is usually given orally for the treatment of vaginal infections caused by Trichomonas vaginalis, and it is effective in treating bacterial infections caused by anaerobes (organisms that can survive without oxygen). It affects these organisms by causing nicks in, or breakage of, strands of DNA or by preventing DNA replication. Metronidazole is also the drug of choice in the treatment of giardiasis, an infection of the intestine caused by a flagellated amoeba.

Iodoquinol inhibits several enzymes of protozoans. It is given orally for treating asymptomatic amoebiasis and is given either by itself or in combination with metronidazole for intestinal and hepatic amoebiasis.

Trypanosomes are flagellated protozoans that cause a number of diseases. Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas’ disease, is treated with nifurtimox, a nitrofuran derivative. It is given orally and results in the production of activated forms of oxygen, which are lethal to the parasite. Other forms of trypanosomiasis (African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness) are caused by T. brucei gambiense or T. brucei rhodesiense. When these parasites invade the blood or lymph, the drug of choice for either form is suramin, a nonmetallic dye that affects glucose utilization and hence energy production. Because suramin is not absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, it is given by intravenous injection.

Pneumocystis carinii causes pulmonary disease in immunocompromised patients. These infections are treated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, which inhibits folic acid synthesis in protozoans. An alternative agent for treatment of these diseases is pentamidine isethionate, which probably affects the parasite by binding to DNA.

Chloroquine phosphate, given orally, is a drug used for the prevention and treatment of uncomplicated cases of malaria, which is caused by species of Plasmodium. In regions where chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum is encountered, mefloquine or doxycycline may be used for prevention of the disease. Infection with chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum may be treated with quinine sulfate, often in combination with pyrimethamine and sulfadoxine, or with artemisinin, in combination with agents such as mefloquine or amodiaquine. A high level of quinine in the plasma frequently is associated with cinchonism, a mild adverse reaction associated with such symptoms as a ringing noise in the ears (tinnitus), headache, nausea, abdominal pain, and visual disturbance. Primaquine phosphate is given orally to prevent malaria after a person has left an area where P. vivax and P. ovale are endemic and to prevent relapses with the same organisms.