New Drug, JPC2067, Effective Against Toxoplasmosis

A new experimental drug, used to treat malaria, has been highly effective in treating toxoplasmosis. In fact, the new drug is said to be ten times more effective that the standard currently approved treatment for toxoplasmosis. This is according to a new study published in the journal PloS Neglected Diseases.

The new drug, known as JPC-2067, is said to be highly effective and safe (no toxicity) against the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii). Toxoplasmosis is a neglected disease that infects nearly one-third of all humans. It is estimated that than 2 billion people worldwide.

Infectious disease expert Rima McLeod, from the University of Chicago and lead of the study believes that this new experimental drug may some day replace the standard treatment of toxoplasmosis. Currently toxoplasmosis is treated by a combination of two drugs: pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine.

Healthy mice were injected with appropriate doses of parasite Toxoplasma gondii. After a few days mice develop the characteristic symptoms of toxoplasmosis "apparently ill" mice ("ruffled fur and hunched shoulders"). Then the drug was given to these mice and results were recorded.

The study states that after 52 days no evidence of the parasite was present in the blood samples nor or of the plaques that they produce. Control group remained ill while drug-treated mice were apparently healthy.

Biochemically speaking the new experimental drug JPC-2067 works by inhibiting the works of an enzyme, known as dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which is characteristic in the family of parasites related to toxoplasmosis and malaria.

Human DHFR differ from mouse DHFR so we do not know if this drug will work well in humans. As a matter of fact the drug is set to enter in clinical trials soon to see if it is as effective as in mice