Potential of doxorubicin as an antileishmanial agent.

Doxorubicin, a well characterized anticancer drug, was tested in vitro and in vivo for activity against Leishmania donovani. Activity in vitro was very high against both the promastigote and amastigote forms of this parasite with 50% effective dose (ED50) values on the order of 0.43 microM and 0.86 microM, respectively. An in vivo inhibition of spleen parasite burden up to 95% in an infected mouse model was achieved when a dosage of 625 micrograms doxorubicin/kg body weight/day was given in 4 consecutive doses, which is far less than the toxic dose. These results suggest that doxorubicin is highly active against visceral leishmaniasis and may be considered with second-line therapeutic agents such as amphotericin B and pentamidine.