Effect of anacardic acid against echinococcosis through inhibition of VEGF-induced angiogenesis

AbstractEchinococcosis is a zoonotic infection caused by cestode species of the genusEchinococcus, with limited treatment options. It is urgent to develop new anti-hydatid agent. In this paper, we reported anacardic acid (AA), a natural product isolated from the Brazilian cashew-nut shell liquid, which presented a high activity against metacestodes ofEchinococcus multilocularis (E. multilocularis) andEchinococcus granulosus sensu stricto (E. granulosus s.s.) in vitro and in vivo. AA exerted a better efficacy onE. granulosus s.s. protoscoleces andE. multilocularis metacestodes than that of albendazole (ABZ) and dihydroartemisinin (DHA) in vitro, and an inhibition on the growth ofEchinococcus metacestode as effective as ABZ in vivo. Moreover, we also found that one of the mechanisms of AA againstEchinococcus could be the suppression of angiogenesis on/in the metacestode mass through inhibiting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) —induced signalling pathways. This work finds that AA is a new promising potential candidate drug for echinococcosis treatment.
Source: Veterinary Research - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research