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- Title
Antileishmanial activity of Urtica dioica extract against zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis.
- Authors
Badirzadeh, Alireza; Heidari-Kharaji, Maryam; Fallah-Omrani, Vahid; Dabiri, Hossein; Araghi, Atefeh; Salimi Chirani, Alireza
- Abstract
Background: Neglected parasitic diseases (NTDs) like cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) have caused high mortality and morbidity rate in developing countries. This disease is considered as one of the six major tropical diseases, and has a great importance in HIV infected individuals as an opportunistic infection in those areas that both infections are endemic. This study evaluated the therapeutic effects of the Urtica dioica L (U. dioica) aqueous extract as an anti-leishmanial herbal drug in-vitro and in-vivo, and in addition to that, evaluated two vital immune system cytokines including gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) plus nitric oxide (NO) and arginase activity against Leishmania major (L. major) infected mice. Methodology/Principal findings: In-vitro anti-leishmanial activity of U. dioica aqueous extract was determined using MTT method and also Parasite Rescue Transformation Assay. Also, the footpad lesion size and parasite load in BALB/c mice infected with L. major were quantified for in-vivo assessment. Furthermore, for evaluating the immune responses, the levels of IFN-γ, IL-4, NO and arginase were measured in the BALB/c mice. These results indicated that U. dioica extract significantly reduced the L. major promastigotes viability. According to the in-vitro cytotoxicity assay of the extract on Leishmania parasites (CC50) and infected macrophages (EC50), the extract had no toxicity to the macrophages, however it efficiently killed the L. major amastigotes. In addition, the lesion size, parasite load, IL-4, and ARG were decreased in the treated infected mice, however IFN-γ and NO were significantly increased. Conclusions/Significance: This study established satisfactory results in Leishmania parasite clearing both in-vivo and in-vitro. Therefore, U. dioica extract can be considered as an effective and harmless herbal compound for killing the parasite without toxicity to the host macrophages. Furthermore, it also can treat the CL by switching the mouse immune response towards a cell-mediated response (Th1); hence, it may be identified as a perfect therapeutic herbal drug for CL treatment. Author summary: Nowadays, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) like leishmaniasis have increased the mortality and morbidity rate in developing countries, especially in tropical regions, and is considered as responsible for more than 20 million deaths per year. Although, cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is rapidly spreading in all over the world, but this disease controlling has remained insufficient because of low-cost treatment and the lack of an effective vaccine. Therefore, new treatment approaches for leishmaniasis are immediately required. Up to now, application of natural herbal products has been considered as one of the major effective ways in treating the protozoan parasitic infections like CL. In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic effects of the Urtica dioica L (U. dioica) aqueous extract as an anti-leishmanial herbal drug in-vitro and in-vivo, and also quantified the immune cytokines IFN-γ, IL-4 against CL caused by Leishmania major (L. major). The in-vitro activity of U. dioica aqueous extract on L. major was determined using MTT method and Parasite Rescue Transformation Assay. Moreover, the footpad lesion size was assessed and parasite load in the mice infected with L. major was quantified for in-vivo. In order to evaluate the immune responses, IFN-γ, IL-4, NO and arginase were measured in the Leishmania infected mice. Accordingly, U. dioica is one of the effective herbal plant in L. major parasite clearing without any harmful toxicity to the murine cells, and can strongly cure the zoonotic CL.
- Subjects
CUTANEOUS leishmaniasis; AIDS-related opportunistic infections; STINGING nettle; TREATMENT effectiveness; PROTOZOAN diseases; PARASITIC diseases
- Publication
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2020, Vol 14, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1935-2727
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pntd.0007843