The antifungal compound butenafine eliminates promastigote and amastigote forms of Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis and Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis

The production of ergosterol lipid, important for the Leishmania membrane homeostasis, involves different enzymes. This pathway can be blocked to azoles and allylamines drugs, such as Butenafine. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the anti-leishmanicidal activity of this drug in 2 major spe...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Bezerra-Souza, Adriana, Yamamoto, Eduardo S., Laurenti, Márcia D., Ribeiro, Susan P., Passero, Luiz Felipe D. [UNESP]
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2016
Country:Brasil
Institution:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
Repository:Repositório Institucional da UNESP
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/173544
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parint.2016.08.003
http://hdl.handle.net/11449/173544
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Antileishmanial agent
Butenafine
Drug repurposing
Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis
Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis
Description
Summary:The production of ergosterol lipid, important for the Leishmania membrane homeostasis, involves different enzymes. This pathway can be blocked to azoles and allylamines drugs, such as Butenafine. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the anti-leishmanicidal activity of this drug in 2 major species of Leishmania responsible for causing the American tegumentar leishmaniasis (L. (L.) amazonensis and L. (V.) braziliensis). Butenafine eliminated promastigote forms of L. amazonensis and L. braziliensis with efficacy similar to miltefosine, a standard anti-leishmania drug. In addition, butenafine induced alterations in promastigote forms of L. amazonensis that resemble programmed cell death. Butenafine as well as miltefosine presented mild toxicity in peritoneal macrophages, however, butenafine was more effective to eliminate intracellular amastigotes of both L. amazonensis and L. braziliensis, and this effect was not associated with elevated levels of nitric oxide or hydrogen peroxide. Taken together, data presented herein suggests that butenafine can be considered as a prototype drug able to eliminate L. amazonensis and L. braziliensis, etiological agents of anergic diffuse and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, respectively.