THERAPEUTIC EFFICACY OF RESIQUIMOD ON TREATING CHRONIC TOXOPLASMOSIS IN EXPERIMENTAL INFECTED MICE

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic protozoan infectious disease affects people worldwide with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. The incomplete efficacy of the approved drugs for the chronic Toxoplasma gondii infections endangers one-third of the global humans and animals with reactivation. This is due to the risky complications chronic toxoplasmosis causes. This study evaluated the TLRs 7/8 agonist, Resiquimod ® for treating chronic toxoplasmosis in BALB/c mice infected with the ME49 strain of T. gondii as compared the traditionally used Py-rimethamine ® & Sulphadiazine ® . This was judged by the number of brain cysts, the histpatholo-gical degrees in the brain and retina, expression of the apoptotic marker, caspase-3 compared to negative and positive controls. The results showed a statistically significant decrease in the number of brain cysts in resiq-uimod-treated mice correlated with the histopathological improvement of brain and retina and apoptosis.