praziquantel

English
WOTD – 25 July 2017

Etymology
The skeletal formula of praziquantel
A scanning electron microscope image of a tapeworm (Cestoda). Praziquantel can be used to treat tapeworm infections.

Blend of p(y)razi(ne) +‎ qu(inoline) +‎ ant(h)el(mintic). The drug was developed by the German pharmaceutical companies Bayer and Merck in the mid-1970s. The name is established as the drug’s international nonproprietary name, and follows the -antel suffix pattern for the general anthelmintics category of pharmaceutical products.

Pronunciation

Noun

praziquantel (uncountable)

  1. An anthelmintic medication used to treat a number of types of parasitic worm infections, including clonorchiasis, cysticercosis, opisthorchiasis, schistosomiasis, and tapeworm infections. [from 1970s]
    • 1977 July, R. Gönnert; P. Andrews, “Praziquantel, a New Broad-spectrum Antischistosomal Agent”, in Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde, volume 52, number 2, DOI:10.1007/BF00389899, abstract, page 129:
      Praziquantel, (2-cyclohexylcarbonyl)-1,2,3,6,7,11b-hexa-hydro-2H pyrazino[2,1a]isoquinolin-4-one, belongs to a new series of antischistosomal compounds. The results of a detailed study of the efficacy of praziquantel on Schistosoma mansoni in mice, Mastomys and Syrian hamsters are described.
    • 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present, London: HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN; republished London: Folio Society, 2016, OCLC 954719670, page 470:
      In the case of schistosomiasis, […] the techniques of molecular biology are being used to seek vaccines, and praziquantel has transformed therapy.
    • 2009 May 26, Donald G[erald] McNeil Jr., “Parasites: Giving a deworming drug to girls could cut H.I.V. transmission in Africa”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 27 March 2011:
      The drug praziquantel, which costs only 32 cents per child, would prevent schistosomiasis, a worm disease that starts as a urinary tract infection but, untreated, can lead to female genital sores that make it easier for H.I.V. to enter.

Further reading
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