Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran.
Zabol Medicinal Plants Research Center, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran.
Infect Disord Drug Targets. 2023;23(6):e020623217598. doi: 10.2174/1871526523666230602113613.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a serious health problem in some parts of the world, such as Iran. Since the use of pentavalent antimonial compounds such as meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime, MA) for the treatment of CL has side effects, naloxone as a new treatment in the footpad of Leishmania major (L. major)-infected BALB/c mice was investigated by evaluating the lesion size and the parasite burden.
The animals were infected with L. major (MRHO/IR/75/ER). 40 BALB/c mice were divided into 4 groups (10/group), and were treated as follows 39 days after L. major infection: Group 1 treated with intraperitoneal injections of MA (100 mg/kg, positive control group) daily for six weeks; Group 2 received a 100 μl injection of PBS (negative control group); Group 3 received subcutaneous (SC) injections of naloxone (10 mg/kg) daily for six weeks (Naloxone1), and Group 4 was SC injected with naloxone (10 mg/kg) weekly for six weeks (Naloxone2). The lesion size was measured using a digital caliper.
After the end of treatment, the lesion parasite burden was evaluated. As compared to the negative control group, the groups that received MA and naloxone (groups 1, 3, and 4) showed fewer parasites. Also, the naloxone-treated mice showed significantly smaller lesion sizes than the negative control group (p˂0.05), but they did not differ significantly from the MA-treated mice.
Taken together, the results suggest that naloxone might be a promising and alternative treatment for CL.
皮肤利什曼病（CL）是世界上某些地区（如伊朗）的一个严重健康问题。由于戊二价锑化合物（如葡甲胺锑）用于治疗 CL 的副作用，因此研究了纳洛酮作为治疗 L. major（L. major）感染 BALB/c 小鼠足底的新方法，通过评估病变大小和寄生虫负荷来评估纳洛酮的疗效。
动物感染 L. major（MRHO/IR/75/ER）。40 只 BALB/c 小鼠被分为 4 组（每组 10 只），并在 L. major 感染后 39 天进行以下治疗：组 1 每天腹腔注射 MA（100mg/kg，阳性对照组），连续 6 周；组 2 接受 100μl PBS 注射（阴性对照组）；组 3 每天皮下（SC）注射纳洛酮（10mg/kg），连续 6 周（纳洛酮 1），组 4 每周 SC 注射纳洛酮（10mg/kg），连续 6 周（纳洛酮 2）。使用数字卡尺测量病变大小。
治疗结束后，评估病变寄生虫负荷。与阴性对照组相比，接受 MA 和纳洛酮（组 1、3 和 4）的组寄生虫数量较少。此外，纳洛酮治疗组的病变大小明显小于阴性对照组（p<0.05），但与 MA 治疗组无显著差异。
综上所述，结果表明纳洛酮可能是治疗 CL 的一种有前途的替代方法。
