Efficacy of clofazimine against acute and chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection in mice

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic protozoal disease affecting approximately one-third of the world's population. The lack of current treatment options necessitates the development of drugs with good tolerance and effectiveness on the active and cystic stages of the parasite. The present study was established to investigate, for the first time, the potential potency of clofazimine (CFZ) against acute and chronic experimental toxoplasmosis. For this purpose, the type II T. gondii (Me49 strain) was used for induction acute (20 cysts in each mouse) and chronic (10 cysts in each mouse) experimental toxoplasmosis. The mice were treated with 20 mg/kg of CFZ intraperitoneally and orally. The histopathological changes, brain cyst count, total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde (MDA) assay, and the level of INF-& gamma; were also evaluated. In the acute toxoplasmosis, both IP and oral administration of CFZ induced a significant reduction in brain parasite burden by 90.2 and 89%, respectively, and increased the survival rate to 100% compared with 60% in untreated controls. In the chronic infection, cyst burden decreased at 85.71 and 76.18% in CFZ-treated subgroups in comparison to infected untreated controls. In addition, 87.5% and 100% of CFZ-treated subgroups survived versus untreated control 62.5%. Moreover, CFZ significantly increased INF-& gamma; levels in acute and chronic toxoplasmosis. Tissue inflammatory lesions were considerably reduced in the CFZ-treated chronic subgroups. CFZ treatment significantly reduced MDA levels and elevated TAC in both acute and chronic infections. In conclusion, CFZ showed a promising finding regarding the ability to reduce cyst burden in acute and chronic infection. Further studies are needed to investigate the therapeutic role of CFZ on toxoplasmosis using the long-term treatment and more advanced approaches. In addition, clofazimine may need to be accompanied by another drug to augment its effect and prevent the regrowth of parasites.