Amphotericin B in the Chemotherapy of Experimental Schistosomiasis mansoni in Swiss Mice

Abstract

IN May 1963, Gordon, St. John and Olsen¹ reported the prolongation of life in Swiss mice experimentally infected with a Puerto Rican strain of Schistosoma mansoni, when treated for 5 days with ‘Fungizone’ (amphotericin B made soluble with deoxycholate ; E. R. Squibb). In the foregoing experiment, treatment began at a level of 0.5 mg of ‘Fungizone’/kg body-weight of mouse a day. The dosage was increased in two daily increments of 0.5 mg/kg to a final level of 1.5 mg/kg a day, which was maintained for three days. Treatment began twelve weeks after infection (approximately 6 weeks after the parasite had begun producing ova). By one week subsequent to the termination of treatment, 80 per cent of the untreated but only 27 per cent of the treated animals had died. A χ² test showed that the experimental results fit to a confidence limit of 98 per cent the hypothesis that treatment influenced survival.