Chronic infectious disease

Immunostimulants are potentially of benefit in immunodeficiency disorders such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), in chronic infectious diseases, and in some selected malignancies, especially those that involve the lymphatic system. 

Leprosy. A slowly progressive, chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae and characterized by the development of granulomatous or neurotropic lesions in the skin, mucous membranes, nerves, bones, and viscera. 

Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease caused by various species of mycobacteria. The important human mycobacterium pathogens are Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis. According to WHO, about one third of the world s popu-... 

The abdominal form of the so-called ray-fungus disease (actinomycosis) is a non-contagious, mostly chronic infectious disease induced through the gram-positive, anaerobic rod-shaped bacterium Actinomyces israelii. It is a pseudomycosis. Under favourable conditions, this human saprophyte can cause enterocolitis. 

An increasing number of infectious diseases pharmacists practice in outpatient settings. These individuals usually practice in one of two areas. One area is in outpatient clinics, where they are directly involved in patient care. This is particularly true for pharmacists who specialize in treatment of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or other chronic infectious diseases (e.g., leprosy). Pharmacists take medication histories, counsel patients about their medications, assess response to antimicrobial therapy, and make adjustments in therapy, as necessary. 

Agents that act as stimulators of immune responses represent a new area in immunopharmacology with the potential for important therapeutic uses, including the treatment of immune deficiency diseases, chronic infectious diseases, and cancer. 

Mental symptoms (depression) accompany the physical symptoms of vitamin-C deficiency disease (scurvy). In 1957, Akerfeldt reported that the serum of schizophrenics had been found to have greater power of oxidizing N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine than that of other persons. Several investigators then reported that this difference is due to a smaller concentration of ascorbic acid in the serum of schizophrenics than of other persons. This difference has been attributed to the poor diet and increased tendency to chronic infectious disease of the patients (Benjamin, 1958 Kety, 1959), and has also been interpreted as showing an increased rate of metabolism of ascorbic acid by the patients (Hoffer and Osmond, 1960 Briggs, 1962). It is my opinion, from the study of the literature, that many schizophrenics have an increased metabolism of ascorbic acid, presumably genetic in origin, and that the... 

Quassinoids have attracted much attention due to the wide spectrum of biological activities that they display, viz., antimalarial, antifeedant, anti-inflanunatory, antiulcer, antipyretic, antifertility, antileukemic, cytotoxic activities, and induction of murine stem cell differentiation which have been widely reported [54-59]. We have demonstrated that quassin is a potent immunomodulatory tool that efficiently controls the estabhshment of leishmanial parasite within the host macrophages [60]. Our contention was that quassin could be used as a potential inununomodulator to generate the required immunity not only for the treatment of leishmaniasis but also for the treatment of other chronic infectious diseases. Subsequently, we had shown that both quassin and neoquassin can be used along with artesunate (a derivative of artemisinin) as combinatorial therapy against malaria [61]. 

Non-specific immunostimulation [1, 2] might be useful and very effective when the immune system of the host is impaired. Therefore, it can be indicated to counteract immunosuppressions or an ineffectively working immune system, which might be the consequence of excessively applied chemotherapy or long term treatment with immunosuppressive drugs. In these cases immunostimulants can be applied adjuvant to a conventional chemotherapy. According to Drews [3], immunostimulants are an attractive alternative to conventional chemotherapy when mixed infections, infectious hospitalism, chronic infectious diseases, persistent infections and their immunopathogenic sequels, or chemotherapy resistent bacterial and viral infections have to be treated. 

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