Drugs that help fight one parasitic infection may contribute to the rapid development of infections with other parasites, report Scottish scientists in the Proceedings of Royal Society B.
Biologists at the University of Edinburgh have conducted studies on wild mice, which almost always carry multiple parasitic infections simultaneously. For several weeks, they gave them drugs to fight the infection with nematodes living in the intestine. Throughout the experiment, they monitored changes in the numbers of these worms in the hosts, and tested the animals for the presence of other common parasitic infections.
It turned out that although the nematode infection was inhibited, the number of other parasites (e.g. protozoa of the genus Eimeria) in the intestines increased significantly.
This discovery – according to the authors of the study – shows that infections that coexist in our body “compete” with each other for which one will cause the disease. Therefore, treating one infection may have an unintended effect – allowing other parasites to gain a stronger position, which in turn worsens the patient’s health.
Dr Amy Pedersen, who leads the study, says: Under natural conditions, parasitic infections are rarely found in isolation; as a rule, the body struggles with several at the same time. Our study is the first to show that treating one infection without considering the others can be counterproductive.
We can lead to a domino effect and cause a rapid development of diseases caused by parasites that have so far been dormant, adds the researcher.
She emphasizes that this study represents an important step towards understanding the wide-ranging effects of similar drug therapies in humans and animals. (PAP)
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