Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, December 1999, p. 2910-2914, Vol. 43, No. 12
Medical Service, Audie Murphy Veterans
Administration Hospital,1 and Division
of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, The University of
Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio,2
San Antonio, Texas 78284, and Schering-Plough Research
Institute, Kenilworth, New Jersey 078333
Received 18 May 1999/Returned for modification 29 June
1999/Accepted 1 October 1999
Current therapy for leishmaniasis is unsatisfactory. Efficacious
and safe oral therapy would be ideal. We examined the efficacy of SCH
56592, an investigational triazole antifungal agent, against cutaneous
infection with Leishmania amazonensis and visceral
infection with Leishmania donovani in BALB/c mice. Mice
were infected in the ear pinna and tail with L. amazonensis
promastigotes and were treated with oral SCH 56592 or intraperitoneal
amphotericin B for 21 days. At doses of 60 and 30 mg/kg/day, SCH 56592 was highly efficacious in treating cutaneous disease, and at a dose of
60 mg/kg/day, it was superior to amphotericin B at a dose of 1 mg/kg/day. The means of tail lesion sizes were 0.32 ± 0.12, 0.11 ± 0.06, 0.17 ± 0.07, and 0.19 ± 0.08 mm for
controls, SCH 56592 at 60 and 30 mg/kg/day, and amphotericin B
recipients, respectively (P = 0.0003, 0.005, and 0.01, respectively). Parasite burden in draining lymph nodes confirmed these
efficacy findings. In visceral leishmaniasis due to L. donovani infection, mice treated with SCH 56592 showed a 0.5- to
1-log-unit reduction in parasite burdens in the liver and the spleen
compared to untreated mice. Amphotericin B at 1 mg/kg/day was superior
to SCH 56592 in the treatment of visceral infection, with a 2-log-unit
reduction in parasite burdens in both the liver and spleen. These
studies indicate very good activity of SCH 56592 against cutaneous
leishmaniasis due to L. amazonensis infection and, to a
lesser degree, against visceral leishmaniasis due to L. donovani infection in susceptible BALB/c mice.
0066-4804/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Efficacy of the Triazole SCH 56592 against
Leishmania amazonensis and Leishmania donovani in
Experimental Murine Cutaneous and Visceral Leishmaniases
*
Corresponding author. Present address: Division of
Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine (MBC 46), King Faisal
Specialist Hospital and Research Center, P.O. Box 3354, Riyadh 11211, Saudi Arabia. Phone: (966) 1-442-7494. Fax: (966) 1-442-7499. E-mail: abdely{at}kfshrc.edu.sa.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»