Schistosoma mansoni: In vitro schistosomicidal activity of piplartine

Schistosomiasis is one of the world’s greatly neglected tropical diseases, and its control is largely dependenton a single drug, praziquantel. Here, we report the in vitro effect of piplartine, an amide isolated from Piper tuberculatum (Piperaceae), on Schistosoma mansoni adult worms. A piplartine concentrationof 15.8 lM reduced the motor activity of worms and caused their death within 24 h in a RPMI 1640 medium.Similarly, the highest sub-lethal concentration of piplartine (6.3 lM) caused a 75% reduction in eggproduction in spite of coupling. Additionally, piplartine induced morphological changes on the tegument,and a quantitative analysis carried out by confocal microscopy revealed an extensive tegumental destructionand damage in the tubercles. This damage was dose-dependent in the range of 15.8–630.2 lM. At doses higher than 157.6 lM, piplartine induced morphological changes in the oral and ventral sucker regions of the worms. It is the first time that the schistosomicidal activity has been reported forpiplartine.