Will this kill Strongyloides?
Despite this difference in environments, most platyhelminths use the same system to control the concentration of their body fluids. Flame cells, so called because the beating of their flagella looks like a flickering candle flame, extract from the mesenchyme water that contains wastes and some reusable material, and drive it into networks of tube cells which are lined with flagella and microvilli.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatworm
Microtubules are nucleated and organized by microtubule organizing centers (MTOCs), such as the centrosome found in the center of many animal cells or the basal bodies found in cilia and flagella, or the spindle pole bodies found in fungi.
The drugs that can alter microtubule dynamics include:
• The cancer-fighting taxane class of drugs (paclitaxel (taxol) and docetaxel) block dynamic instability by stabilizing GDP-bound tubulin in the microtubule. Thus, even when hydrolysis of GTP reaches the tip of the microtubule, there is no depolymerization and the microtubule does not shrink back.
• The Epothilones, e.g. Ixabepilone, work in a similar way to the taxanes.
• Nocodazole, vincristine, and Colchicine have the opposite effect, blocking the polymerization of tubulin into microtubules.
• Eribulin binds to the (+) growing end of the microtubules. Eribulin exerts its anticancer effects by triggering apoptosis of cancer cells following prolonged and irreversible mitotic blockade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtubule
Vinca alkaloids are a set of anti-mitotic and anti-microtubule alkaloid agents originally derived from the periwinkle plantcatharanthusroseus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinca_alkaloid
A spindle poison, also known as a spindle toxin, is a poison that disrupts cell division by affecting the protein threads that connect the centromere regions ofchromosomes, known as spindles. Spindle poisons effectively cease the production of new cells by interrupting the mitosis phase of cell division at the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC). Unfortunately, spindle poisons, as numerous and varied as they are, still are yet to be 100% effective at ending the formation of tumors(neoplasms).[1] Although not 100% effective, substantive therapeutic efficacy has been found in these types of chemotherapeutic treatments. The mitotic spindle is composed of microtubules (polymerized tubulin) that aid, along with regulatory proteins; each other in the activity of appropriately segregating replicatedchromosomes. Certain compounds affecting the mitotic spindle have proven highly effective against solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Two specific families of antimitotic agents, vinca alkaloids and taxanes, interrupt the cell’s division by the agitation of microtubule dynamics. The vinca alkaloids work by causing the inhibition of the polymerization of tubulin into microtubules, resulting in the G2/M arrest within the cell cycle and eventually cell death. In contrast, the taxanesarrest the mitotic cell cycle by stabilizing microtubules against depolymerization. Even though numerous other spindle proteins exist that could be the target of novelchemotherapeutics, tubulin-binding agents are the only types in clinical use. Agents that affect the motor proteinkinesin are beginning to enter clinical trials.[2]Another type, Paclitaxel, acts by attaching to tubulin within existing microtubules. Next, it stabilizes the polymer.
Some spindle poisons:
• Mebendazole
• Colchicine
• Griseofulvin
• Vinca Alkaloids
• Paclitaxel (Taxol)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindle_poison
Let me know if you can make heads or tails of the above information.
I could simplify by saying, If Microtubules make up the parasitic infection you have, then why not use a drug which inhibits microtubules?
Thos are called anti - mitotic drugs also or microtubule inhibitors.
Just a thought - remember Florida Plumber, you asked. :)