Exploration of novel in vitro assays to study drugs against Trichuris spp

Though trichuriasis is a significant public health problem, few effective drugs are available underscoring the need for new drug therapies. For the evaluation of trichuricidal activity of test compounds in vitro an accurate, reliable, sensitive, fast and cheap drug sensitivity assay is essential. The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the performance of different in vitro drug sensitivity assays in comparison to the standard motility assay. Trichuris muris L4 larvae or adult worms were isolated from the intestinal tract from infected female C57BL/10 mice and incubated in the presence of ivermectin, levamisole and nitazoxanide (200, 100 and 50 μg/ml) for 72 h. The health status of the worms was either evaluated microscopically using a motility scale from 0 to 3 (motility assay), by examination of absorbance or emission in response to metabolic activity (MTT (Thiazolyl Blue Tetrazolium Bromide) and Alamar Blue assay), through analysis of absorbance of an enzyme-substrate reaction (acid phosphatase activity assay), by measuring the noise amplitudes (isothermal microcalorimetry and xCELLigence System) or the heat flow (isothermal microcalorimetry) of T. muris. The Alamar Blue assay, xCELLigence and microcalorimetry compared favorably to the standard motility assay. These three assays precisely determined the trichuricidal activity of the three test drugs. The acid phosphatase and the MTT assays showed a poorer performance than the motility assay. In conclusion, the colorimetric Alamar Blue in vitro assay is a good alternative to the motility assay to study drug effects against T. muris L4 and adults, since it is easy to perform, precise and of low cost.