The anticancer drug imatinib induces autophagy in Schistosoma mansoni

Schistosomiasis, caused by schistosome parasites, is a neglected tropical disease affecting humans and animals. There is no vaccine available yet, and fear of upcoming resistance against the only widely used drug, praziquantel, is omnipresent. Previously, we showed that imatinib (Gleevec), an anticancer drug, affected schistosome physiology and caused the death of adult Schistosoma mansoni in vitro. Here, we present the first known evidence that one effect of imatinib is the induction of autophagy in S. mansoni. Furthermore, worms co-treated with imatinib and bafilomycin A1, a late-phase autophagy inhibitor, reversed imatinib-induced autophagy and its antischistosomal effects as revealed by phenotypic and molecular analyses.(c) 2021 Australian Society for Parasitology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study reveals that imatinib induces autophagy in Schistosoma parasites and demonstrates that co-treatment with the autophagy inhibitor bafilomycin A1 can reverse the autophagy induced by imatinib and its antischistosomal effects.