{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T20:21:42Z","timestamp":1787775702722,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,16]],"date-time":"2021-07-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1626393600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001807","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o de Amparo \u00e0 Pesquisa do Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2016\/22488-3"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2016\/22488-3"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001807","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Pharmaceuticals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The intravascular parasitic worm Schistosoma mansoni is a causative agent of schistosomiasis, a disease of great global public health significance. Praziquantel is the only drug available to treat schistosomiasis and there is an urgent demand for new anthelmintic agents. Adopting a phenotypic drug screening strategy, here, we evaluated the antiparasitic properties of 46 commercially available cardiovascular drugs against S. mansoni. From these screenings, we found that amiodarone, telmisartan, propafenone, methyldopa, and doxazosin affected the viability of schistosomes in vitro, with effective concentrations of 50% (EC50) and 90% (EC90) values ranging from 8 to 50 \u00b5M. These results were further supported by scanning electron microscopy analysis. Subsequently, the most effective drug (amiodarone) was further tested in a murine model of schistosomiasis for both early and chronic S. mansoni infections using a single oral dose of 400 mg\/kg or 100 mg\/kg daily for five consecutive days. Amiodarone had a low efficacy in chronic infection, with the worm and egg burden reduction ranging from 10 to 30%. In contrast, amiodarone caused a significant reduction in worm and egg burden in early infection (&gt;50%). Comparatively, treatment with amiodarone is more effective in early infection than praziquantel, demonstrating the potential role of this cardiovascular drug as an antischistosomal agent.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ph14070686","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,18]],"date-time":"2021-07-18T21:18:52Z","timestamp":1626643132000},"page":"686","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Antiparasitic Properties of Cardiovascular Agents against Human Intravascular Parasite Schistosoma mansoni"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Raquel","family":"Porto","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center for Neglected Diseases, Guarulhos University, Pra\u00e7a Tereza Cristina 229, S\u00e3o Paulo 07023-070, SP, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ana C.","family":"Mengarda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center for Neglected Diseases, Guarulhos University, Pra\u00e7a Tereza Cristina 229, S\u00e3o Paulo 07023-070, SP, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rayssa A.","family":"Cajas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center for Neglected Diseases, Guarulhos University, Pra\u00e7a Tereza Cristina 229, S\u00e3o Paulo 07023-070, SP, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2372-1746","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria C.","family":"Salvadori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Physics, University of S\u00e3o Paulo, S\u00e3o Paulo 05508-060, SP, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8986-3210","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fernanda S.","family":"Teixeira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Physics, University of S\u00e3o Paulo, S\u00e3o Paulo 05508-060, SP, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7021-2744","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel D. R.","family":"Arcanjo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biophysics and Physiology, Federal University of Piaui, Teresina 64049-550, PI, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abolghasem","family":"Siyadatpanah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ferdows School of Paramedical and Health, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand 9717853577, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6703-7869","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria de Lourdes","family":"Pereira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials & Department of Medical Sciences, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2730-7788","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Polrat","family":"Wilairatana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1766-7031","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Josu\u00e9 de","family":"Moraes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center for Neglected Diseases, Guarulhos University, Pra\u00e7a Tereza Cristina 229, S\u00e3o Paulo 07023-070, SP, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.1038\/s41572-018-0013-8","article-title":"Schistosomiasis","volume":"4","author":"McManus","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat. 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