Therapeutic Arsenal against Leishmaniases: A Review
Janaína B. de Menezes
Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
Tamires A. da Silva
Departamento de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
Luciano A. M. Grillo
Departamento de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
Camila B. Dornelas *
Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil and Departamento de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Leishmaniases are included in the group of reemerging neglected tropical diseases caused by flagellated parasites of the Leishmania genus. WHO recommends the use of chemotherapy as the main control measure for all the types of the disease. Antimonials are the first drug of choice, but they can be replaced by amphotericin B, mitelfosine, paromomycin and pentamidine isethionate, or combinations. Generally, all the medicines that contain these drugs have several drawbacks. In view of this, chemotherapy for Leishmaniasis is increasingly the object of study, searching for safer or more effective drugs or new drug delivery vehicles, where nanotechnology is crucial. Thus, the purpose of this review is to present the therapeutic arsenal available in the market and that has been investigated for this application.
Keywords: Neglected tropical diseases (NTD), Leishmaniasis, chemotherapy, leishmanicidal, nanotechnology