Toxoplasma gondii: Preventive and therapeutic effects of morphine and evaluation of treatment parameters of tachyzoites and infected macrophages in vitro and in a murine model.

ABSTRACT: Common medicines for the treatment of toxoplasmosis have limited efficacy and unwanted side effects. Opiates can effect both innate and cell-mediated immunity and stimulate the immune responses in different parasitic infections. In this work, preventive and therapeutic effects of morphine were evaluated on the tachyzoites of Toxoplasma gondii and infected macrophages in vitro and in a murine model. Different concentrations of morphine (0.1 and 0.01 μg/ml) were evaluated on mortality rate of T. gondii by direct counting after 3 and 24 hours. The cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of these drugs were measured by the MTT assays and flow cytometry analysis, respectively. The same procedures were assessed in T. gondii-infected macrophages. The parasite loads were determined using quantitative poly

SUBMITTER: Zaki L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7214776 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature