Drug resistance in Leishmania: similarities and differences to other organisms.
The main line of defense available against parasitic protozoa is chemotherapy. Drug resistance has emerged however, as a primary obstacle to the successful treatment and control of parasitic diseases. Leishmania spp., the causative agents of leishmaniasis, have served as a useful model for studying mechanisms of drug resistance in vitro. Antimonials and amphotericin B are the first line drugs to treat Leishmania followed by pentamidine and a number of other drugs. Parasites resistant against all these classes of drugs have been selected under laboratory conditions. A multiplicity of resistance mechanisms has been detected, the most prevalent being gene amplification and transport mutations. With the tools now available, it should be possible to elucidate the mechanisms that govern drug resistance in field isolates and develop more effective chemotherapeutic agents.
Papadopoulou
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Centre de Recherche en Infectiologie du Centre de Recherche du CHUL et Départment de Biologie Médicale, Division de Microbiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université Laval, Québec, Canada GIV 4G2. Barbara.Papadopoulou@crchul.ulaval.ca
Kündig
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Singh
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Ouellette
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