Usefulness of a murine model of hepatic cystic echinococcosis for preclinical drug trials: Efficacy of albendazole vs albendazole nanocrystals

Cystic echinococcosis is a zoonotic infection caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato. The disease is characterized by the long-term growth of cysts, most commonly in the liver and lungs. Although an ideal model of cystic echinococcosis should induce the development of cysts in the liver and imitate the natural infection route, the murine model of intraperitoneal is still widely used in the field of experimental theraphy. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the usefulness of the murine model of hepatic CE for preclinical drug trials. The effectiveness of albendazole could also be assessed by measuring the diameter of the hepatic cyst. The albendazole significantly reduced the size of the cysts. The ultrastructural alterations of the germinal layer of hepatic cysts provoked by albendazole coincided with those observed in the intraperitoneal model. Similar results were obtained with both albendazole doses. Therefore, the efficacy of albendazole nanocrystals in the murine model of hepatic cystic echinococcosis was carried out at albendazole doses of 25 mg/kg. The abdominal ultrasound allows us to assess the response of cysts to drugs only in a qualitative manner. Although the size of cysts in the albendazole nanocrystal group was not significantly lower than that observed with albendazole, at the ultrastructural level, a greater extent of damage was observed. The murine model of hepatic cystic echinococcosis can be effectively used for assessing the effect of novel formulations or compounds. The main advantage of this model is that cysts are located in the orthotopic organ, which resembles the location most commonly found in human cases. In future studies, the usefulness of the model for pharmacokinetics studies in hepatic cysts will be evaluated.