Abstrakt

In Vitro Effect of Artemether-Loaded Nanostructured lipid Carrier (NLC) on Leishmania Infantum

Meisam Khazaei

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is an acute and deadly form of Leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania infantum parasite. Due to the toxicity and side effects of conventional treatment options, such as Glucantime and other pentavalent drugs, finding novel drugs with fewer adverse effects is required. Artemether, (ART), is one of the derivatives of Artemisinin, which was shown to be effective in treating malaria and more recently, leishmaniasis. In this study, we compared the effect of ART and nanostructure loaded with artemether (NLC-ART) on Leishmania infantum promastigotes and amastigotes, at different concentrations (2.5-5-10-25-50-100 ?g/mL) using the MTT assay method after 24 and 48 hours of treatment. IC50 values (?g/mL) of promastigote and amastigote of L. infantum to ART/ NLC-ART after 48 hours of treatment, were found to be 37.12 / 32.1 and 16.43 / 15.42, respectively. Moreover, we found that (NLC-ART), had the lowest cytotoxicity against the J774 macrophage cell line. Conclusion: The NLC-ART can be a good candidate for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis.