Experimental Leishmaniasis. In vitro activity of Z-100, an immunomodulatory polysaccharide, against Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis. Preliminary report

BARROSO, PAOLA ANDREA; MARCO, JORGE DIEGO; KORENAGA, MASATAKA; CALVOPIÑA, MANUEL; KATO, HIROTOMO; HASHIGUCHI, YOSHIHISA

Studies on New and Old World Leishmaniasis and their transmission, with particular reference to Ecuador, Argentina and Pakistan

Kyowa Printing & Co. Ltd.

Lugar: Kochi, Japan; Año: 2004; p. 148 - 153

We examined the activity of Z-100, an immunomodulatory polysaccharide derived from Mycobaterium tuberculosis against amastigote and promastigote forms of Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis. Z-100 showed an antileishmanial or inhibiting effect on the growth of amastigotes parasitized within the murine macrophages (J774.1) but no such an activity on the promastigotes was seen. Concentrations of 8 and 12 µg/ml, showed a significant decrease in numbers of intracellular amastigotes after 48 hrs of incubation (P < 0.001), although no significant difference between the two drug concentrations was found. But no such an inhibition at lower concentration (4 µg/ml) was observed compared to the control. On the other hand, the macrophages, exposed at 12 µg/ml had markedly smaller parasitophorous vacuoles (PVs) than the controls, suggesting that the viability of the amastigotes inside the PVs might have been indirectly affected at some extent. In conclusion, the present in vitro study indicated that Z-100 showed an inhibiting parasitic growth of amastigotes of L. (L.) amazonensis after 48 hrs of incubation. In order to understand the mechanism(s) underlying the antileishmanial or suppressive effect found in the present amastigote-macrophage model, further in vitro and in vivo analyses are required.