[The intriguing influence of albendazole on glutathione reductase activity in the muscles from Trichinella spiralis infected mice].

A clear stimulation of the activity of glutathione reductase (RG, EC 1.6.4.2), one of the major enzymes participating in glutathione metabolism, was observed in the skeletal muscles from Trichinella spiralis infected mice. The maximal, almost two-fold increase in RG activity was observed in week 5 post-infection. Administration of albendazole, an anthelmintic widely used in trichinellosis treatment, resulted in an additional, about 40% stimulation of RG activity (small, but statistically significant) on week 2 post-infection. In weeks 6 and 7 post-infection, when no stimulation of RG activity in infected mice caused by drug was observed, the drug modified the structure of that allosteric enzyme, affecting the kinetics of its substrate saturation in this way that the shape of the substrate saturation curve changed from "double sigmoidal", typical of this enzyme kinetics in the muscles from infected mice, to hyperbolic, typical of this enzyme kinetics in the control, uninfected animals.