A practical miracidial motility assay for assessing Fasciola hepatica sensitivity to compounds in vitro.

Mengwei Zheng, Aya C Taki, Tanapan Sukee, Jane Hodgkinson, Terry W Spithill, Robin B Gasser, Neil D Young

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Article in International journal for parasitology. Drugs and drug resistance, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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Authors and funding

7 authors.

Mengwei ZhengDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia. Electronic address: mengwei-zheng@st.gxu.edu.cn.

Aya C TakiDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.

Tanapan SukeeDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.

Jane HodgkinsonVeterinary Parasitology, Institute Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Terry W SpithillDepartment of Ecological Plant and Animal Science and Centre for AgriBioscience, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, 3086, Australia.

Robin B GasserDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.

Neil D YoungDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia. Electronic address: nyoung@unimelb.edu.au.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Fasciola hepatica causes fasciolosis in livestock and humans worldwide, yet reliable tools to assess drug efficacy against the early developmental stages of this parasite are lacking. Here, we developed an automated miracidial motility assay (MMA) using the WMicroTracker ONE infrared detection system to quantify the sensitivity of F. hepatica miracidia to anthelmintic compounds including clorsulon (CLORS), closantel (CLOS), triclabendazole (TCBZ) and triclabendazole-sulphoxide (TCBZ-SO). Systematic optimisation of assay conditions, including inoculum size, observation window and solvent concentration yielded a reliable platform for evaluating the sensitivity of F. hepatica miracidia from diverse geographic isolates to these compounds. Our results demonstrated that three compounds (CLOS, TCBZ and TCBZ-SO) produced concentration-dependent motility inhibition, whereas CLORS had no effect. CLOS displayed the highest potency among isolates from New South Wales (NSW), Tasmania (TAS) and Victoria (VIC), whereas TCBZ and TCBZ-SO exhibited isolate-specific sensitivity patterns. Miracidial responses of the NSW and TAS isolates to TCBZ, TCBZ-SO and CLOS were also compared in vitro with those of newly excysted juveniles (NEJs) produced from the same isolates. Overall, the findings show that MMA provides a reproducible, host-independent and high-throughput phenotypic platform for assessing miracidial sensitivity to compounds.

Indexed as

AnthelminticsFasciola hepaticaAnimalsBenzimidazolesFascioliasisParasitic Sensitivity TestsSalicylanilidesSulfanilamidesSulfoxidesTriclabendazoleAnthelminticsBenzimidazolesclorsulonclosantelSalicylanilidesSulfanilamidesSulfoxidesTriclabendazoletriclabendazole sulfoxideAnthelminticsFasciola hepaticaMiracidial Motility Assay (MMA)Newly Excysted Juvenile (NEJ)ResistanceSensitivitySusceptibilityWMicroTracker ONE

Identifiers

PMID41722326

DOI10.1016/j.ijpddr.2026.100635

PMCPMC12934223

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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.