Effect of administration of diethylcarbamazine on experimental bacterial and fungal infections in mice.

Abstract Other researchers have found that diethylcarbamazine (DEC) is effective treatment for filariasis despite a lack of demonstrated in vitro antifilarial activity. The results of our previous investigations using feline and murine leukemia virus models encouraged us to investigate the use of DEC with other infections. In the current experiments, DEC treatmentS was associated with (a) increased survival and decreased brain Streptococcus pneumoniae levels following S. pneumoniae challenge in previously immunized mice; (b) increased serum antibody levels to S. pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, and Haemophilus influenzae following inoculation of live bacteria; and (c) lower brain fungal levels following intravenous injection of Aspergillus fumigatus or increasing numbers of Cryptococcus neoformans organisms, and lower brain and kidney levels of Candida albicans following intravenous injection of increasing numbers of C. albicans.