In vitro activity and cell death mechanism induced by acrylonitrile derivatives against Leishmania amazonensis

Leishmaniasis produces approximately-one million of new cases annually, making it one of the most important tropical diseases. As current treatments are not fully effective and are toxic, it is necessary to develop new therapies that are more effective and less toxic, and cause a controlled cell dea...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Bethencourt-Estrella, Carlos J., Delgado-Hernández, Samuel, López-Arencibia, Atteneri, San Nicolás-Hernández, Desirée, Tejedor, David, García-Tellado, Fernando, Lorenzo-Morales, Jacob, Piñero, José E.
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2022
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/298809
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/298809
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Chemotherapy
leishmania
acrylonitrile
toxicity
amazonensis
Description
Summary:Leishmaniasis produces approximately-one million of new cases annually, making it one of the most important tropical diseases. As current treatments are not fully effective and are toxic, it is necessary to develop new therapies that are more effective and less toxic, and cause a controlled cell death, with which we can avoid the immunological problems caused by necrosis. In this work 32 acrylonitriles were studied in vitro against Leishmania amazonensis. Three compounds Q20 (12.41), Q29 (11.2) and Q31 (11.56) had better selectivity than the reference compound, miltefosine (11.14) against promastigotes of these parasites, for this reason they were selected to determine their mechanism of action to know the cell death type of they produce. The results of the mechanisms of action show that these three acrylonitriles tested produce chromatin condensation, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, altered plasma permeability and production of reactive oxygen species. All these characteristic events seem to indicate programmed cell death. Therefore, this study demonstrates the activity of acrylonitriles derivatives as possible leishmanicidal agents.