Title
In vivo antileishmanial efficacy of a naphthoquinone derivate incorporated into a Pluronic <sup>®</sup> F127-based polymeric micelle system against Leishmania amazonensis infection
Date Issued
01 January 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Mendonça D.V.C.
Tavares G.S.V.
Lage D.P.
Soyer T.G.
Carvalho L.M.
Dias D.S.
Ribeiro P.A.F.
Ottoni F.M.
Antinarelli L.M.R.
Vale D.L.
Ludolf F.
Duarte M.C.
Coimbra E.S.
Roatt B.M.
Menezes-Souza D.
Barichello J.M.
Alves R.J.
Coelho E.A.F.
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Masson SAS
Abstract
New therapeutic strategies against leishmaniasis are desirable, since the treatment against disease presents problems, such as the toxicity, high cost and/or parasite resistance. As consequence, new antileishmanial compounds are necessary to be identified, as presenting high activity against Leishmania parasites, but low toxicity in mammalian hosts. Flau-A is a naphthoquinone derivative recently showed to presents an in vitro effective action against Leishmania amazonensis and L. infantum species. In the present work, the in vivo efficacy of Flau-A, which was incorporated into a Poloxamer 407-based micelle system, was evaluated in a murine model against L. amazonensis infection. Amphotericin B (AmB) and Ambisome ® were used as controls. The animals were infected and later treated with the compounds. Thirty days after the treatment, parasitological and immunological parameters were evaluated. Results showed that AmB, Ambisome ® , Flau-A or Flau-A/M-treated animals presented significantly lower average lesion diameter and parasite burden in tissue and organs evaluated, when compared to the control (saline and micelle) groups. Flau-A or Flau-A/M-treated mice were those presenting the most significant reductions in the parasite burden, when compared to the others. These animals developed also a more polarized antileishmanial Th1 immune response, which was based on significantly higher levels of IFN-γ IL-12, TNF-α GM-CSF, and parasite-specific IgG2a isotype; associated with low levels of IL-4, IL-10, and IgG1 antibody. The absence of toxicity was found in these animals, although mice receiving AmB have showed high levels of renal and hepatic damage markers. In conclusion, results suggested that the Flau-A/M compound may be considered as a possible therapeutic target to be evaluated against human leishmaniasis.
Start page
779
End page
787
Volume
109
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Farmacología, Farmacia
Toxicología
Enfermedades infecciosas
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85056002465
PubMed ID
Source
Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy
ISSN of the container
07533322
Sponsor(s)
The authors thank the Program for Technological Development in Tools for Health-PDTIS-FIOCRUZ for use of its facilities. This work was supported by grants from CAPES , FAPEMIG (CBB-APQ-00819-12 and CBB-APQ-01778-2014) and CNPq (APQ-482976/2012-8, APQ-488237/2013-0, and APQ-467640/2014-9). MACF is a grant recipient of FAPEMIG/CAPES. EAFC, BMR and DMS are grants recipient of CNPq.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus