The parasiticidal effect of electricity on Leishmania major, both in vitro and in vivo.
The effects of low electrical potentials on Leishmania major (MRHO/IR/75/ER) were investigated both in culture (in terms of promastigote viability) and in experimentally infected BALB/c and NMRI mice (in terms of the cure of pre-existing skin lesions). Exposure to direct-current potentials of 3, 6, 9 and 12 V (at 0.2-10.7 mA) killed all promastigotes in <15, <10, <10 and <10 min, respectively. When electrodes were used to pass similar direct currents across skin lesions on the tails of infected mice, all but the lowest voltage (3 V) caused unwanted ulceration. At 3 V, however, 3 weeks of electrotherapy, for 10 min twice weekly, initially appeared to cure all the lesions and the therapy was then halted. If given no electrotherapy, the BALB/c mice showed much greater Leishmania-attributable morbidity and mortality than the NMRI mice, and it was only in the treated BALB/c mice that relapses were observed, about 3 weeks after electrotherapy had ceased. The possible clinical use of electrotherapy in the treatment of human cutaneous leishmaniasis is discussed.
Department of Mycology and Parasitology, Esfahan Medical Sciences University, Esfahan, Iran.
H
H
Hejazi
G
G
Eslami
A
A
Dalimi
D000818:Animals; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D004566:Electrodes; D005260:Female; D018320:Leishmania major; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000469:parasitology / Q000628:therapy*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D013997:Time Factors