Effect of ozonide OZ418 against Schistosoma japonicum harbored in mice

The in vitro and in vivo efficacies of ozonide carboxylic acid OZ418 against Schistosoma japonicum were investigated. For in vitro experiments, juvenile (14-day-old) and adult schistosomes were collected from mice infected with 80-100 S. japonicum cercariae for 14 and 35 days post-infection and the worms were maintained in Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 supplemented by 10% calf serum. Against 35-day-old adult S. japonicum, OZ418 resulted in weakened worm motor activity, injury to the worm body, emergence of vacuoles along the worm surface, and death. A similar outcome was seen in 14-day-old juvenile S. japonicum exposed to OZ418. Ineffective concentrations (1, 5, and 10 μg/mL) of OZ418 also interacted with hemin to significantly increase the killing effect against adult schistosomes. The LC50 value of OZ418 against juvenile (14-day-old) and adult schistosomes were identical--16.2 μg/mL, whereas the corresponding LC95 values were 30.7 and 22.7 μg/mL, respectively. Treatment of adult and juvenile (14-day-old) S. japonicum-infected mice with single 200-400-mg/kg oral doses of OZ418 produced total worm burden reductions of 68.5-84.1 and 37.5-50.9%, respectively. Further study showed that in mice infected with various stages of schistosomes and treated with a single oral OZ418 400 mg/kg, poor efficacy was seen in the 3-h-old juvenile worm group, while 14-day-old and 21-day-old juvenile worm groups exhibited less efficacy with total worm burden reductions of 42.6-52.4%. On the other hand, similar and higher total worm burden reductions (64.2-76.0%) were seen in the 7-day-old juvenile worm group and 28-day-old as well as 35-day-old adult worm groups. Furthermore, the mean worm burden reductions of the 7-day-old juvenile worm group and 35-day-old adult worm group were statistically significantly higher than that of the 14-day-old or 21-day-old juvenile worm group (P < 0.01 or <0.05). These data suggest that OZ418 has promising efficacy against 7-day-old juvenile and adult S. japonicum.