Title
New delivery systems for amphotericin B applied to the improvement of leishmaniasis treatment
Date Issued
27 June 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
review
Author(s)
Ribeiro T.G.
Castilho R.O.
Fernandes S.O.A.
Cardoso V.N.
Coelho C.S.P.
Mendonça D.V.C.
Soto M.
Tavares C.A.P.
Faraco A.A.G.
Coelho E.A.F.
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Publisher(s)
Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is one of the six major tropical diseases targeted by the World Health Organization. It is a life-threatening disease of medical, social and economic importance in endemic areas. No vaccine is yet available for human use, and chemotherapy presents several problems. Pentavalent antimonials have been the drugs of choice to treat the disease for more than six decades; however, they exhibit high toxicity and are not indicated for children, for pregnant or breastfeeding women or for chronically ill patients. Amphotericin B (AmpB) is a second-line drug, and although it has been increasingly used to treat visceral leishmaniasis (VL), its clinical use has been hampered due to its high toxicity. This review focuses on the development and in vivo usage of new delivery systems for AmpB that aim to decrease its toxicity without altering its therapeutic efficacy. These new formulations, when adjusted with regard to their production costs, may be considered new drug delivery systems that promise to improve the treatment of leishmaniasis, by reducing the side effects and the number of doses while permitting a satisfactory cost-benefit ratio.
Start page
235
End page
242
Volume
48
Issue
3
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Farmacología, Farmacia Medicina tropical Toxicología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84933040704
PubMed ID
Source
Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
ISSN of the container
00378682
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus