Bioactivity of Phycocolloids against the Mediterranean Protozoan Leishmania infantum: An Inceptive Study

Abstract

Sulfated polysaccharides from marine macroalgae have been shown to possess a variety of biological activities against fungi, bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. In this study, the in vitro activity of algal polysaccharides against Leishmania infantum (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) was investigated. The polysaccharides were extracted from different macroalgae of the Mediterranean Sea: Chaetomorpha linum, Agardhiella subulata, Gracilaria viridis, Gracilaria bursa-pastoris, Hypnea cornuta, Sargassum muticum, and Undaria pinnatifida. Preliminary results showed a good anti-leishmanial activity of the investigated species, encouraging the focus on their use as natural resources in order to match integrated management strategies for the employment of local macroalgae.

Marine Algae as Source of Novel Antileishmanial Drugs: A Review

“…However, several reports distinguish between axenic amastigotes and intracellular amastigotes both in terms of drug susceptibility and protein expression [ 3 ]. Leishmaniasis is a disease which is distributed worldwide in the tropics, subtropics, and the mediterranean basin and affect both humans and animals [ 3 , 4 ]. This neglected tropical disease represents a major public health problem in 98 endemic countries where it is responsible for approximately 2–4 million new cases and around 70,000 deaths per year [ 4 ].…”

“…Leishmaniasis is a disease which is distributed worldwide in the tropics, subtropics, and the mediterranean basin and affect both humans and animals [ 3 , 4 ]. This neglected tropical disease represents a major public health problem in 98 endemic countries where it is responsible for approximately 2–4 million new cases and around 70,000 deaths per year [ 4 ]. Leishmaniasis presents two main clinical manifestations including cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) affecting macrophages resident in the skin and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) affecting cells of the mononuclear phagocyte system of liver, spleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes and intestine [ 1 ].…”

“…For most of these drugs, there are many drawbacks in terms of undesirable side effects, emergence of drug resistance, relapse after treatment or long-course of treatment and high cost [ 3 , 12 , 13 , 15 ]. In addition to the afore-mentioned limitations, the increased number of co-infection with HIV have challenged drug discovery research over the past two decades [ 3 , 4 , 8 , 9 ]. Ideally, the new therapeutic agents should have more innovative mechanisms of action, higher efficacy, affordability and shorter treatment duration, and less toxicity to improve compliance for the treatment and reduce the likelihood of emergence of resistance by the parasites.…”

Screening of Chaetomorpha linum Lipidic Extract as a New Potential Source of Bioactive Compounds

“…Among them, Chaetomorpha linum (O.F. Müller) Kützing is the most widespread and studied from an ecological perspective [39,40], but recently also for the biotechnological applications, such as the employment of its extracts in animal disease control [41] or in cosmetic industry [31].…”

Bixa orellana L. (Bixaceae) and Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin & Clemants (Amaranthaceae) Essential Oils Formulated in Nanocochleates against Leishmania amazonensis

“…In this respect, the antileishmanial activity of several marine microalgae [6,7] and plant-derived products [8,9], including essential oils [10], has been evaluated. In previous studies, the essential oil (EO) from Bixa orellana L. (EO-Bo), Asteraceae, was highlighted for its inhibitory activity against intracellular amastigotes of L. amazonensis , lower cytotoxicity on the host cells and demonstrated significant therapeutic efficacy against experimental CL in mice [11].…”