Anti-leishmanial effects of Eryngium planum and Ecbilliun elaterum methanolic extract against Leishmania major

Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease, one of the most important neglected tropical diseases. Existing anti-leishmanial treatments are not effective for a long time and associated with toxic side effects so searching for a new, effective and safe alternative treatments against infectious diseases is greatly needed. This study is aimed to assess the leishmaniacidal effects of methanolic extracts of Eryngium planum (E. planum) and Ecbilliun elaterum (E. elaterum) on Leishmania major (L. major), In vitro. The selected plants were collected from northern areas of Iran. The methanolic extract from the aerial parts of plants were prepared using maceration methods. GC- Mass analysis was used to determine the compounds of the plants. Promastigotes of L. major was cultured in RPMI-1640 medium and the anti-leishmanial and cytotoxicity effects of extracts at concentrations of 100, 200, 400 and 800 µg/ml were assessed using MTT assay. The data obtained from gas chromatography revealed that α-Pinene, Caryophyllene oxide, β-Caryophyllene, Bicyclogermacrene and α-Bisabolol are the main compounds extracted from E. planum and α-Pinene, Germacrene D, Caryophyllene oxide, γ-Eudesmol and α-Bisabolol are the main components of E. elaterum. The results of MTT Assay revealed that E. planum at concentrations of 800 µg/ml after 24 h at 400 µg/ml after 48 h and the E. elaterium at concentrations of 800 µg/ml after 48 h at 400 µg/ml after 72 h had similar anti-leishmanial effects to the positive control. These results indicated that E. planum and E. elaterum are the potential sources for the discovery of novel anti-leishmanial treatments.

Role of magnetic Field in the Healing of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Lesions in Mice

Leishmaniasisis an important tropical cutaneous disease that is endemic in the Middle East, including Iran. There is no consensus on the appropriate therapeutic method, dose, and duration for this disease. The pentavalent antimonial compounds are the first-line treatments of leishmaniasis. With regard to the resistance of this disease against drugs and its treatment failure in some patients, the present study was conducted to investigate the role of alternating magnetic field (AMF) in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis lesionsin mice. To this end, 45 male Balb/c mice with the age of 3-4 weeks and weight of 18-20 g were purchased from the Pasteur Institute, Tehran, Iran, to be investigated. The mice were infected with Leishmania promastigote (2×106) injected in the upper end of the tail.After 3 weeks, the animals were screened for developing lesions. Finally, 15 mice were selected and randomly divided into three equal groups of positive control (treated with the standard drug), negative control (without treatment), and experimental (subjected to AMF at a frequency of 50 kHz for 30 min on a daily basis for 4 weeks). The subjects were followed up for 4 weeks, and the size of their lesions was measured weekly. The data were analyzed by repeated measures test in SPSS software (version 20) at a p-value of < 0.05. There was no significant difference between the experimental and positive control groups (P>0.05). However, the negative control group showed a significant difference with the positive control and experimental groups (P=0.0001). As the findings indicated, AMF was seemingly able to decrease the size of lesions to the same extent as the standard drug. Consequently, AMF could be suggested as a noninvasive and complementary tool against cutaneous leishmaniasis. However, it is required to perform more studies to address different aspects of this domain.