EFFECT OF HYCANTHONE AND OF TWO OF ITS STRUCTURAL ANALOGS ON LEVELS AND UPTAKE OF 5-HYDROXYTRYPTAMINE IN SCHISTOSOMA MANSONI

¹ Department of Pathobiology, School of Hygiene and Public Health; Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, School of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

In contrast to other antischistosomal drugs, administration of hycanthone or two of its structural analogs to mice infected with Schistosoma mansoni resulted in an increase in the levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine in the parasites. This effect coincided with a shift of the worms from the mesenteric veins toward the liver and could be accounted for by a stimulation of a low affinity 5-hydroxytryptamine uptake mechanism of schistosomes. Hycanthone treatment of their host resulted in a loss of the ability of the worms to store 5-hydroxytryptamine in neuronal structures, i.e., under these conditions the amine was localized only in extraneuronal tissues.