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Background
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Anthelmintics or anti-helminthics are a class of drugs that are effective against a range of intestinal parasitic worms (helminths). Parasitic helminths must maintain an appropriate feeding site. Nematodes and trematodes must actively ingest and move food through their digestive tracts to maintain an appropriate energy state, these together with reproductive processes require a well defined and developed neuromuscular coordination. Anthelmintic treatment is a multi-targeting system designed to interfere with the integrity of parasite cells. The pharmacologic basis of the treatment for helminths involves the targeting of neuromuscular coordination, or protective mechanisms against host immunity, which lead to starvation, paralysis, and expulsion of the parasite. The benzimidazole class of drugs were introduced in 1961 and interfere with the parasite's ATP pathway on a cellular level. They bind to a specific building block called b-tubulin and prevent its incorporation into certain cellular structures called microtubules, which are essential for energy metabolism.
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