EVALUATION OF THE ANTI-Toxoplasma gondii EFFECT OF METALLOCOMPLEXES COORDINATED OR NOT WITH SULFADIAZINE

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.813512507014

• Palavras-chave: Toxoplasma gondii; toxoplasmosis; metallocomplexes; chemotherapy.

• Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii; toxoplasmosis; metallocomplexes; chemotherapy.

• Abstract:

  Toxoplasma gondii, the agent of toxoplasmosis, is an obligate intracellular protozoan capable of infecting a wide range of vertebrate cells. Toxoplasmosis is a pathology related to severe damage to immunosuppressed hosts and its current chemotherapy is quite restricted, with the combination of sulfadiazine and pyrimethamine being used more often, a therapy associated with adverse reactions. This fact highlights the importance of studying new drugs against Toxoplasma gondii. Currently, the biological effect of new compounds has been studied, drugs that use a metallic core, metallocomplexes, inorganic compounds that show promising biological activities such as fungicide, bactericide and antiviral. The metallocomplexes, the dinuclear ferric compounds N0414 (Fe alpha-naphthol BMPA) and N5814 (Fe beta-naphthol BMPA) showed activity against Toxoplasma gondii in vitro and were not toxic to LLC-MK2 cells, being able to reduce the activity of antioxidant enzymes crucial to the parasite's defense. In this project, we investigated the activity of compounds from the metallocomplex family, such as the ferric core compounds N0414 and N5814, which showed anti-Toxoplasma gondii activity and were able to eliminate the infection from almost all host cells. Some of the advantages of these drugs is that they have increased lipophilicity, making it easier for the compound to pass through biological membranes and thus requiring lower concentrations to obtain the necessary biological activity, as well as reversing the resistance profiles of the target cell. In future stages, we will investigate what type of death the parasite suffers after treatment with the compounds through ultrastructure analysis and the use of specific markers by fluorescence microscopy. Due to the promising results found in this work, to prove their efficacy, the compounds will also be used in in vivo tests with murine models under the acute phase of toxoplasmosis.