Leishmanicidal activity of soranjidiol, an anthraquinonas isolated from Heterophyllaea pustulata

MOREIRA B; MATHEUS M; DANELLIS M; COMINI L.R; NÚÑEZ MONTOYA S.C.; PINO-DA-SILVA L.

Foz de Iguazú

Encuentro; XXVII ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BRAZILIAN SOCIETY OF PROTOZOOLOGY. XXXVIII ANNUAL MEETING ON BASIC RESEARCH IN CHAGAS´DISEASE; 2011

Comite organizador del evento

Leishmaniasis is a diseasis caused by a protozoan Leishmania sp according to WHO about 1.5 million new cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis occur each year worldwide. The treatment is based on antimonials compounds  and amphotericin B, the last is used on resistant parasite strain; however, these drugs have high toxicity and are not fully effective. Many studies using natural products have been done to find out new chemotherapeutic agent against Leishmania sp. Anthraquinones (AQs) whit photosensitizing and antimicrobial properties have been isolated from a phototoxic plant Heterophyllaea pustulata Hook f. (Rubiaceas), one of the predominant metabolites was purified and identified as soranjidiol.  In this study, we investigated the Leishmanicidal effect of soranjidiol in vitro.  We analized the citotoxicity of this compound against peritoneal macrophages of BALB/c mice by means the XTT assay and trypan blue exclusion test,  which showed that soranjidol did not affect cell viability until 100 micromolar and the cell membrane integrity.  In addition, macrophages phagocytic capacity was also not altered in comparison with untreated macrophages. However soranjidiol showed an amatigotes survival inhibition o f 59.4%  at 10 micromolar and 63.2% at 100 micromolar of soranjidiol inside infected- macrophages. In order to investigate on possible mechanism of action, we evaluated if soranjidiol was able to modulate NO production in LPS/INF-g activated- macrophages. Our results showed that soranjidiol at 10 micromolar inhibited NO production in 17.4%  and 63.85% at 50 micromolar comparated to untreated activated macrophages. Our result provide new perspective for novel compounds for leishmaniasis treatment.