[The development of a new experimental model of pneumocystosis]

The corticosteroid tricort-40 (triamcinolone acetonide) was found to induce the reactivation of endogenous pneumocystic injection caused by P. carinii in Wistar rats given 5-9 infections subcutaneously in median doses of 0.5-4.0 mg/kg at 6-22 days intervals each. Manifest P. carinii infection in the animals was characterized by early detection of its agent (starting from week 2 of immunosuppression), a progression of the infection and its transition to the generalized stage. The combined use of tricort-40 and infection of the animals with Leishmania infantum as an immunosuppressive cofactor ensured an increase in reproducibility of a manifest pneumocystosis model and its more rapid transition to the generalized stage. The experimental model of mixed infection of two AIDS-associated parasite infections--generalized pneumocystosis and visceral leishmaniasis--was first reproduced in inbred rats, which may be suitable for simultaneous screening of new antipneumocystic and antileishmanial drugs.