Ghuffran Muhammed Hassan
Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Al-Jaderyia Campus, Baghdad, Iraq.
Antiparasitic activity of Artemether and combination Artemether with Artemisinin against Leishmaniasis, in vitro.
Authors
Abstract
The Leishmania donovani parasite causes visceral leishmaniasis (VL), an acute and fatal form of leishmaniasis.
Because traditional therapy alternatives, such as glucantime and other pentavalent medicines, are toxic and have side effects,
new treatments with fewer negative effects are needed. Only a handful of drugs are clinically beneficial to treatments of the
disease, but considerable limitations threaten their very usage. Novel, safe, and efficient drugs, including those against antimalaria
and leishmaniasis co-infections, are so essential. Artemether (ATM) is an Artemisinin derivative that has been
demonstrated to be useful in the treatment of malaria and, more recently, leishmaniasis. The current research was carried out
to evaluate the anti-leishmanial effects of Artemether (ART) and combination of Artemether- Artemisinin (ART- ATM)
against procyclic promastigotes of Leishmania donovani. In this fundamental-applied research, we compared the effect of
(ATM) and combination of (ART- ATM) on Leishmania donovani procyclic promastigotes, at different concentrations by
using the MTT assay method after 24 ,48 and 72 h of treatment. The results prove ATM and combination (ART- ATM)
efficiency against the procyclic promastigotes viability with IC50 measured after 24, 48- and 72hours treatment. The
combination of (ART- ATM) could be used in the treatment of leishmaniasis to improve the therapeutic outcome for
Leishmania species.