Recent advances on leishmaniasis chemotherapy: intracelular molecules as a drug target

Abstract

The leishmaniases are diseases caused by protozoan parasites Leishmania sp., that are present in promastigotes or amastigotes forms; the promastigotes infect the sand fly vector, and the amastigotes are the infective forms presented on human macrophages. These protozooses showed two types of clinical manifestations: tegumentar and visceral. The clinical treatments used have shown inefficient; the drugs utilized are presented in injectable form, difficulting the treatment, since to be the patient, may be interned for applications, which are painful. Therefore, for internation, it is necessary monitoring the collateral effects of the drugs, as these medications showed a high toxicity. The leishmaniasis chemotherapy is the target of studies of many research laboratories, that have tested other compounds and plant extracts with the aim of finding new leishmanicidal agents with lower colateral effects and good bioavailability. Therefore, the researches aimed to find other pharmaceutical forms, that do not lead to patient internation. This paper aims to review the recent advances of the chemotherapy used for leishmaniasis, presenting the pharmacological and biochemical aspects of the participation of intracellular molecules of parasite as the drug targets.