ArticleAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy2015
Guanabenz repurposed as an antiparasitic with activity against acute and latent toxoplasmosis.
Article in Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- High-throughput screening and meta-analysis for lead compounds in antimalarial drug discovery.Malaria journal · 2025Pooled it
- Activities of anti-Toxoplasma drugs and compounds against tissue cysts in the last three decades (1987 to 2017), a systematic review.Parasitology research · 2018Pooled it
- Guanidines: Privileged Scaffolds Against Neglected Tropical Diseases: A Review.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Translational control of Toxoplasma gondii differentiation.Bioscience reports · 2026Review
- Review
- Tartrolon E rapidly blocks Toxoplasma gondii capacity to invade host cells.International journal for parasitology. Drugs and drug resistance · 2025Article
- High-Throughput Repurposing Screen Reveals Compounds with Activity againstACS infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Spring viraemia of carp virus modulates the time-dependent unfolded protein response to facilitate viral replication.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Adrenergic signaling during parasitic infections.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Exploration of innovative drug repurposing strategies for combating human protozoan diseases: Advances, challenges, and opportunities.Journal of pharmaceutical analysis · 2025Review
- Blocking the WNT/β-catenin pathway in cancer treatment:pharmacological targets and drug therapeutic potential.Heliyon · 2024Review
- High Throughput Repurposing Screen Reveals Compounds with Activity AgainstbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Approaches for TargetingPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Mammalian integrated stress responses in stressed organelles and their functions.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2024Review
- Effective factors in the pathogenesis ofHeliyon · 2024Review
- Evaluation of mono and combined nitrofurantoin therapy for toxoplasmosisPathogens and global health · 2023Article
- The apicoplast is important for the viability and persistence ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- ER Stress, the Unfolded Protein Response and Osteoclastogenesis: A Review.Biomolecules · 2023Review
- A Review of the Biological Activity of Amidrazone Derivatives.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Toxoplasmosis: Current and Emerging Parasite Druggable Targets.Microorganisms · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that persists as a chronic infection. Toxoplasma evades immunity by forming tissue cysts, which reactivate to cause life-threatening disease during immune suppression. There is an urgent need to identify drugs capable of targeting these latent tissue cysts, which tend to form in the brain. We previously showed that translational control is critical during infections with both replicative and latent forms of Toxoplasma. Here we report that guanabenz, an FDA-approved drug that interferes with translational control, has antiparasitic activity against replicative stages of Toxoplasma and the related apicomplexan parasite Plasmodium falciparum (a malaria agent). We also found that inhibition of translational control interfered with tissue cyst biology in vitro. Toxoplasma bradyzoites present in these abnormal cysts were diminished and misconfigured, surrounded by empty space not seen in normal cysts. These findings prompted analysis of the efficacy of guanabenz in vivo by using established mouse models of acute and chronic toxoplasmosis. In addition to protecting mice from lethal doses of Toxoplasma, guanabenz has a remarkable ability to reduce the number of brain cysts in chronically infected mice. Our findings suggest that guanabenz can be repurposed into an effective antiparasitic with a unique ability to reduce tissue cysts in the brain.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.