Potential of synthetic endoperoxides against Trichomonas vaginalis in vitro

Metronidazole is well known for medicine against Trichomonas vaginalis infection, but it has side effects though it is effective, and especially because reports of metronidazole-tolerant species are increasing, the development of new medicine is being required. Here, we noticed the killing effects of endoperoxide compounds, N-89 and N-251 as new antimalarial drug candidates, on T. vaginalis and searched the possibility of development of new medicine. We added each of metronidazole, artemisinin, and two of new endoperoxides (N-89 and N-251) to metronidazole-resistant and -sensitive species and compared its anti-trichomonal efficacy. For metronidazole, IC50 value, 50% of killing concentration for T. vaginalis, was very low for metronidazole-sensitive isolates (11.7 to 22.8 μM), but was high for metronidazole-resistant ones (182.9 to 730.4 μM). The IC50 values of N-89 and N-251 were 41.0 to 60.0 μM, and 82.0 to 300.0 μM for metronidazole-sensitive and -resistant isolates, respectively. In conclusion, we found the endoperoxides, N-89 and N-251, have anti-trichomonal effect against metronidazole-resistant T. vaginalis as well as metronidazole-sensitive ones. These results indicate that the anti-trichomonal effects for our endoperoxides are equivalent or better in metronidazole-resistant T. vaginalis in comparison to metronidazole.