Leishmaniasis: in search of new chemotherapeutic agents.

Members of a class of compounds designated lepidines (8-amino-6-methoxy-4-methylquinoline derivatives) were tested in a hamster-Leishmania donovani model and found to have activity many-fold that of a reference drug meglumine antimoniate. One of them, 8-(7-isopropylaminoheptylamino)-6-methoxy-4-methylquinoline, was found to be 138 times as effective as the standard antimonial drug used.