Anti-parasitic drugs chemotherapeutants

Little is known about the nervous systems of cestodes and trematodes except that they probably differ from those of nematodes, since milbemycins and avermectins have no effect on them. However, a highly effective anti schistosomal and antitapeworm agent, praziquantel (see Chapter 54 Clinical Pharmacology of the Anthelmintic Drugs), is known to enhance Ca2+ influx and induce muscular contraction in those parasites, though it exerts no action on nematodes or insects. Some benzodiazepine derivatives have activities similar to those of praziquantel these activities are unrelated to the anxiolytic activities in the mammalian central nervous system. The nerves and muscles in schistosomes and tapeworms are thus interesting subjects for future chemotherapeutic studies. 

Initially, the term chemotherapy referred to the treatment by means of drugs preventing selectively the development of various kinds of infesting hosts protozoa (amoebas, leishmania, hematozoa, treponema, trypanosoma), microbes, viruses and as a rule all parasites which propagate infectious diseases. In the same context of selective toxicity, the anti-cancer treatments also belong to the class of chemotherapeutic agents. 

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