Treatment of visceral Leishmaniasis in hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) experimentally infected with Leishmania chagasi

• Grant number: 12/22736-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2013
• End date: November 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Helio Langoni
• Grantee: Viviane Gasparini Mota
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis (CVL) constitutes a serious public health problem, rapidly expanding in the state of Sao Paulo and in large urban centers. This fact a few years ago took on greater importance in rural areas. The official recommendation is euthanasia of infected dogs or sick, indeed controversial, and that has generated conflicts in that many owners oppose this nomination. Treatment with drugs recommended for the treatment of human cases should not be used in dogs, because their area no parasitological cure, combining the possibility of developing resistance to these drugs agent. Thus there is a need for studies concerning the action of new formulations for the treatment of LVC, evaluating its effects with respect to parasite load in animals, considering the fact that despite treatment canine animals as sources of infection remain to allow albeit, with lower risk, the agent spread to other canines as well as humans from the transmission by sand-fly vectors. This study proposes thus to evaluate the action of allopurinol alone and associated with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) on experimental infection of hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) with samples of Leishmania chagasi, among other parameters comparing the parasite load in organs such as the spleen and liver, as well bone marrow and popliteal lymph node, animals of different groups evaluated, the first symptoms and 30 days after the end of treatment proposed for 120 days. It is expected improvement in the response of allopurinol associated with DMSO, considering the fact that in addition to exerting an anti-inflammatory effect is a permeating cell membrane capable of carrying other medicinal substances outside the cell, which is important in the LVC, whose agent is an intracellular protozoan (Leishmania L.chagasi).(AU)