The effect of suramin on the immature forms of Onchocerca volvulus in the vertebrate host
Duke, B.O.
Tropenmedizin und Parasitologie 25(1): 84-88
1974
ISSN/ISBN: 0303-4208 PMID: 4839003 Document Number: 74651
Two chimpanzees were inoculated at intervals over 11 to 12 months with several hundred infective larvae of Onchocerca volvulus. While these infections were still at various stages of development in the prepatent phase, the animals were treated with a maximal curative course of 8 intravenous suramin injections (of 17 and 21 mg/kg body-weight each, respectively). One animal was followed up for 30 months after treatment, during which time no microfilariae appeared in skin snips. The other animal died one month after treatment, and autopsy revealed dead immature worms at all stages of development from post-infective larvae to three-quarter grown worms. It is concluded that suramin is lethal to all the immature stages of O. vulvulus in the vertebrate host and the implication of this finding is discussed. [AS].