MEGAZOL COMBINED WITH SURAMIN - A CHEMOTHERAPY REGIMEN WHICH REVERSEDTHE CNS PATHOLOGY IN A MODEL OF HUMAN AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS IN MICE

Chemotherapy for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), or sleeping sick ness, is unreliable because of resistance, refraction and toxic and ad verse side-effects. Using a long-term experimental model of HAT with i nvolvement of the central nervous system (CNS), we tested the ability of a megazol and suramin combination treatment to eliminate CNS trypan osomes. This consisted of 20 mg suramin per kg body weight administere d intraperitoneally (IP), followed 24 h later by 4 daily doses (80 mg/ kg) of megazol given either IP or per os. One week post-treatment, neu rological disorders had disappeared. One of 15 mice relapsed in each a pplication group at 81 and 98 days after treatment, respectively Bt si x months, no signs of relapse were seen in remaining mice, indicating that this chemotherapy regimen was curative. Immunohistochemical (astr ocytosis) and histological (inflammatory lesions) examinations of brai n tissues showed that animals returned to normal from 2 months post-tr eatment. These results suggest that the megazol-suramin combination re versed the CNS pathology in this model.