background: we evaluated the effect of the ethanolic extract of scrophularia striata on the iranian strain of leishmania major (mrho/ir/75/er) both in vitro and in vivo conditions methods: the effective dose (ed) of ethanolic extract of s. striata were determined using  mtt assay  on the growth of promastigote forms of  l. major in axenic culture media. then, the ed 50 of  s. striata on mice pe...

Leishmaniasis is a growing health problem worldwide. As there are certain drawbacks with the drugs currently used to treat human leishmaniasis and resistance to these drugs is emerging, there is a need to develop novel antileishmanial compounds, among which isoquinoline alkaloids are promising candidates. In this study, 18 novel oxoisoaporphine derivatives were synthesized and their possible an...

Mimicking mammalian apoptotic cells by exposing phosphatidylserine (PS) is a strategy used by virus and parasitic protozoa to escape host protective inflammatory responses. With Leishmania amazonensis (La), apoptotic mimicry is a prerogative of the intramacrophagic amastigote form of the parasite and is modulated by the host. Now we show that differently from what happens with amastigotes, prom...

BACKGROUND Visceral leishmaniasis caused by the protozoan Leishmania infantum is a zoonotic, life threatening parasitic disease. Domestic dogs are the main peridomestic reservoir, and allopurinol is the most frequently used drug for the control of infection, alone or in combination with other drugs. Resistance of Leishmania strains from dogs to allopurinol has not been described before in clini...

BACKGROUND We evaluated the effect of the ethanolic extract of Scrophularia striata on the Iranian strain of Leishmania major (MRHO/IR/75/ER) both in vitro and in vivo conditions. METHODS The effective dose (ED) of ethanolic extract of S. striata were determined using MTT assay on the growth of promastigote forms of L. major in axenic culture media. Then, the ED50 of S. striata on mice perito...

The intracellular amastigote form of leishmania is responsible for the cell-to-cell spread of leishmania infection in the mammalian host. In this report, we identify a high-affinity, heparin-binding activity on the surface of the amastigote form of leishmania. Amastigotes of Leishmania amazonensis bound approximately 120,000 molecules of heparin per cell, with a Kd of 8.8 x 10(-8) M. This hepar...

BACKGROUND Antitumor cyclopalladated complexes with low toxicity to laboratory animals have shown leishmanicidal effect. These findings stimulated us to test the leishmanicidal property of one palladacycle compound called DPPE 1.2 on Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis, an agent of simple and diffuse forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Amazon region, Brazil. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS...

Abstract Background The preparation of an effective drug delivery formulation is urgent need to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Pentavalent antimonials and Amphotericin B (AmB) are considered leishmaniasis; however, their clinical usage hampered by poor solubility, high cost, toxicity, the emergence drug-resistant Leishmania spp. systems (DDS) could be used as alternative treatment option f...

The infectivity amastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi, isolated from the supernatant of the J774G8 macrophage-like cell line infected with trypomastigotes to normal macrophages in vitro was tested. After a period of 1 h of T. cruzi-macro¬ phage interaction about 2% of the mouse peritoneal macrophages had ingested amastigotes. In contrast 12% of the macrophages had ingested epimastigotes. Treatment o...

Antimonial compounds are the mainstay for the treatment of infections with the protozoan parasite Leishmania. We present our studies on Leishmania infantum amastigote parasites selected for resistance to potassium antimonyl tartrate [Sb(III)]. Inside macrophages, the Sb(III)-selected cells are cross-resistant to sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam), the main drug used against Leishmania. Putative ...