Phytochemicals With Antileishmanial Activity

An appraisal of the scientific current situation and new perspectives in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis is a Neglected Tropical Diseases caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. It is a major health problem in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world and can produce three different clinical manifestations, among which cutaneous leishmaniasis has a higher incidence in the world than the other clinical forms. There are no recognized and reliable means of chemoprophylaxis or vaccination against infections with different forms of leishmaniasis. In addition, chemotherapy, unfortunately, remains, in many respects, unsatisfactory. Therefore, there is a continuing and urgent need for new therapies against leishmaniasis that are safe and effective in inducing a long-term cure. This review summarizes the latest advances in currently available treatments and improvements in the development of drug administration. In addition, an analysis of the in vivo assays was performed and the challenges facing promising strategies to treat CL are discussed. The treatment of leishmaniasis will most likely evolve into an approach that uses multiple therapies simultaneously to reduce the possibility of developing drug resistance. There is a continuous effort to discover new drugs to improve the treatment of leishmaniasis, but this is mainly at the level of individual researchers. Undoubtedly, more funding is needed in this area, as well as greater participation of the pharmaceutical industry to focus efforts on the development of chemotherapeutic agents and vaccines for this and other neglected tropical diseases.

Benzoic Acid Derivatives of Ifloga spicata (Forssk.) Sch.Bip. as Potential Anti-Leishmanial against Leishmania tropica

This study aimed to appraise the anti-leishmanial potentials of benzoic acid derivatives, including methyl 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate (compound 1) and octadecyl benzoate (compound 2), isolated from the ethnomedicinally important plant Ifloga spicata (I. spicata). Chemical structures were elucidated via FT-IR, mass spectrometry, and multinuclear (1H and 13C) NMR spectroscopy. Anti-leishmanial potentials of the compounds were assessed using Leishmania tropica promastigotes. Moreover, acridine orange fluorescent staining was performed to visualize the apoptosis-associated changes in promastigotes under a fluorescent microscope. A SYTOX assay was used to check rupturing of Leishmania promastigote cell membranes using 0.1% Triton X-100 as positive control. A DNA interaction assay was carried out to assess DNA attachment potential. AutoDock software was used to check the binding affinity of compounds with surface enzyme leishmanolysin gp63 (1LML). Both compounds exhibited considerable anti-leishmanial potential, with LD50 values of 10.40 ± 0.09 and 14.11 ± 0.11 μg/mL for compound 1 and compound 2, respectively. Both compounds showed higher binding affinity with the leishmanolysin (gp63) receptor/protease of Leishmania, as assessed using computational analysis. The binding scores of compounds 1 and 2 with target gp63 were −5.3 and −5.6, respectively. The attachment of compounds with this receptor resulted in their entry into the cell where they bound with Leishmania DNA, causing apoptosis. The results confirmed that the investigated compounds have anti-leishmanial potential and are potential substitutes as natural anti-leishmanial agents against L. tropica.