EFFECT OF SESQUITERPENE LACTONES ON CULTURED Leishmania mexicana

BARRERA P, TONN C, NIETO M, JIMENEZ-ORTIZ V, SARTOR T, SOSA MA

Merlo, San Luis, Argentina

Congreso; XXII Annual Scientific Meeting of Cuyo Biology Society; 2004

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

  that affects to millions of people in the world. This parasite can be easily cultured in liquid medium at room temperature and cycle between the two well know stages; amastigote and promastigote. In this work we made a screening of natural com-pounds to evaluate a possible use against L. mexicana. The para-sites were cultured in Diamond Medium at room temperature. The sesquiterpene lactones dehydroleucodine (DhL), mexicanine (MXC) and helenaline (HLN), purified from leaves of native plants, were added to the parasite cultures, at different concentrations, and we evaluated the effect on proliferation, and viability of the cells. The three lactones inhibited cell proliferation, although MXC and HLN exerted such effect at lower concentrations than DhL (from 1ug/ml) and mostly by a deleterious action. This effect was also stronger than that on Trypanosoma cruzi reported previously. We also observed that the infection of Vero cells with treated parasites (DhL 5ug/ml, MXC 1ug/ml and HLN 0,5ug/ml) was decreased (from 20 to 3 parasites/cell). From these results we concluded that sesquit-erpene lactones appear as possible agents against L mexicana and they became attractive since are abundant in the nature and exert their action at lower concentration than other known compounds.