Further studies on difluoromethylornithine in African trypanosomes

DL-alpha-Difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), a specific enzyme-activated irreversible inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) was previously shown to cure mice infected with Trypanosoma brucei brucei, a parasite of game and cattle in Africa and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, a human African Sleeping Sickness pathogen. Our studies now indicate that DFMO blocks ornithine decarboxylase and lowers trypanosome polyamine levels in vivo. Polyamine uptake in T.b. brucei also resembles that previously described for mammalian cells. The therapeutic potential of DFMO can now also be extended to another human pathogen, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. Finally, DFMO acts synergistically with another drug, bleomycin, to cure acute trypanosome infections, and furthermore, this same drug combination provides a new approach to the treatment of trypanosomal infections of the central nervous system.