New delivery systems for amphotericin B applied to the improvement of leishmaniasis treatment

Leishmaniasis is one of the six major tropical diseases targeted by the World Health Organization. It is a life-threatening disease of medical, social and economic importance in endemic areas. No vaccine is yet available for human use, and chemotherapy presents several problems. Pentavalent antimoni...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Soto Álvarez, Manuel, Chávez-Fumagalli, Miguel A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/675585
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/675585
https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0138-2015
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Amphotericin B
Leishmaniasis
Nanoparticles
Toxicity
Treatment
Lipid-based formulations
Biología y Biomedicina / Biología
Descripción
Sumario:Leishmaniasis is one of the six major tropical diseases targeted by the World Health Organization. It is a life-threatening disease of medical, social and economic importance in endemic areas. No vaccine is yet available for human use, and chemotherapy presents several problems. Pentavalent antimonials have been the drugs of choice to treat the disease for more than six decades; however, they exhibit high toxicity and are not indicated for children, for pregnant or breastfeeding women or for chronically ill patients. Amphotericin B (AmpB) is a second-line drug, and although it has been increasingly used to treat visceral leishmaniasis (VL), its clinical use has been hampered due to its high toxicity. This review focuses on the development and in vivo usage of new delivery systems for AmpB that aim to decrease its toxicity without altering its therapeutic efficacy. These new formulations, when adjusted with regard to their production costs, may be considered new drug delivery systems that promise to improve the treatment of leishmaniasis, by reducing the side effects and the number of doses while permitting a satisfactory cost-benefit ratio