The Effect of Fluphenazine and Thioridazine on Toxoplasma gondii In Vivo

<p><strong><em>Background:</em></strong> <em>Toxoplasma gondii</em> is the most common parasite causing latent cerebral infections in human. It has been shown that some anti-psychotic drugs are able to inhibit the proliferation of the parasite in in vitro study. There is very limited data regarding the inhibitory effect of anti-psychotics on Toxoplasma in in vivo<em>. </em>In this study, we evaluated anti-<em>Toxoplasma</em> activity of fluphenazine and thioridazine drugs on <em>T. gondii</em> in mice.</p><p><strong><em>Methods:</em></strong> Mice were divided into six groups: Control, sesame as vehicle, thioridazine 10 mg/kg, thioridazine 20 mg/kg, fluphenazine 0.06 mg/kg and fluphenazine 0.6 mg/kg. They were inoculated intraperitoneally with brain suspension containing tissue cysts of <em>T. gondii</em> Tehran strain. Two months after inoculation, the number of cysts in crushed smears of mice brain were counted microscopically and considered as an indicator of anti-<em>Toxoplasma</em> activity. This work has conducted in Qazvin, central Iran, 2014.</p><p><strong><em>Results:</em></strong> Our study showed that fluphenazine and thioridazine could not significantly inhibit the brain cystogenesis of <em>T. gondii</em> in mice. However, the number of brain cysts was less at higher dose compared to lower doses for both drugs.<em> </em></p><strong><em>Conclusion:</em></strong> Further studies need to clear the mechanism of different structure of anti-psychotic drugs on activity of <em>Toxoplasma