1988 Volume 16 Issue 4 Pages 317-325
BALB/c mice infected with L. donovani and ddY mice infected with T. gambiense were treated with inosine analogs (carbocyclic inosine and 3'-deoxyinosine) for appraising therapeutic effects. The mice infected with L. donovani promastigotes were treated with 5 different doses of each drug administered on alternate days. Four weeks after the infection, impression smear of the liver was prepared to determine the parasite load which was expressed as LDU by 1, 000 hepatic cell nuclei. In the mice infected with L. donovani, 3'-deoxyinosine 100 mg/kg i. v. showed about 63% effect as compared with the group of mice administered saline, and carbocyclic inosine 100 mg/kg i. v. showed about 92% effect as compared with saline. The mice infected with intraperitoneal injection of T. gambiense trypomastigotes were treated with drugs once a day for 4-8 days. The effect of drugs was measured by counting number of parasite on blood smear stained with Giemsa solution and survival rates of the mice. The group infected with T. gambiense and treated with carbocyclic inosine died all on the fourth day. On the other hand, 3'-deoxyinosine showed an effect to some extent. The mice treated with 3'-deoxyinosine showed twice longer survival time than the mice administered saline.
