Paromomycin and geneticin inhibit intracellular Cryptosporidium parvum without trafficking through the host cell cytoplasm: implications for drug delivery.

ABSTRACT: Cryptosporidium parvum, which causes intractable diarrhea and lethal wasting in people with AIDS, occupies an unusual intracellular but extracytoplasmic niche. No reliable therapy for cryptosporidiosis exists, though the aminoglycoside paromomycin is somewhat effective. We report that paromomycin and the related compound geneticin manifest their major in vitro anti-C. parvum activity against intracellular parasites via a mechanism that does not require drug trafficking through the host cell cytoplasm. We used both normal and transformed aminoglycoside-resistant Caco-2 or MDBK cells in these studies. Timed-exposure experiments demonstrated that these drugs inhibit intracellular but not extracellular parasites. Apical but not basolateral exposure of infected cells to these drugs led to very

SUBMITTER: Griffiths JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC108441 | biostudies-literature | 1998 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature