Trypanosoma cruzi
Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)

Nifurtimox affects enzyme activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). To differentiate if this effect is a result of a reduced LDH activity or a shift in pyruvate metabolism due to activation of PDH, the enzyme activity of LDH is determined after 4 h treatment with 50 μg/mL Nifurtimox. Compared to the untreated control, the LDH activity is significantly reduced for LA-N-1 (P=0.005), IMR-32 (P=0.009), LS (P=0.0035) and SK-N-SH (P=0.0065). Nifurtimox reduces cell viability and induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells. To characterize the cytotoxic impacts of Nifurtimox on neuroblastoma, 4 cell lines are subjected to several experiments. Cell viability is reduced for all 4 neuroblastoma cell lines after 24 h incubation with 50 μg/mL to an average of 66%, 63%, 62% and 75% (LA-N-1, IMR-32 LS and SK-N-SH, respectively). The reduction is significant compared to the untreated control (P<0.01) and the vehicle control with DMSO (P<0.05) for all cell lines.