Diethylcarbamazine enhances antibody-mediated cellular adherence to Brugia malayi microfilariae

Treatment with the antifilarial drug diethylcarbamazine (DEC) results in a rapid decline in the number of microfilariae circulating in the blood of infected hosts. DEC induces morphological changes in the surface layers of microfilariae, but these alterations alone are probably insufficient to cause the death of the parasite, because the drug fails to reduce microfilaraemia in animals lacking filarial antibodies, and also does not shorten the survival of microfilariae in vitro. The effect of DEC in vivo is thought to result from the trapping of microfilariae in the liver, where they undergo lysis.