Antileishmanial Activity of Compounds Derived from the Medicines for Malaria Venture Open Access Box Against Intracellular Leishmania major Amastigotes.
Leishmaniasis is a complex tropical disease caused by kinetoplastid parasitic protozoa of the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the sand fly insect vector. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the most common form of this disease, and CL infections often result in serious skin lesions and scars. CL remains a public health problem in many endemic countries worldwide because of the absence of effective, safe, and cost-effective drugs for treatment. One of the strategies we chose to use to find novel chemical entities worthy of further development as antileishmanials involved screening synthetic and natural products libraries. In our study, we developed a Leishmania major intracellular amastigote assay that uses the activity of luciferase as a measure of parasite proliferation and used this assay to screen a collection of 400 compounds obtained from Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) for their antileishmanial activity. Our results showed that 14 compounds identified by MMV as antimalarial drugs have antileishmanial activity and can potentially be optimized for CL drug development.
Mozna
M
Khraiwesh
Susan
S
Leed
Norma
N
Roncal
Jacob
J
Johnson
Richard
R
Sciotti
Philip
P
Smith
Lisa
L
Read
Robert
R
Paris
Thomas
T
Hudson
Mark
M
Hickman
Max
M
Grogl
D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002470:Cell Survival; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods*; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D006801:Humans; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D018320:Leishmania major / Q000187:drug effects*; D015394:Molecular Structure
D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents