New Approaches on Leishmaniasis Treatment and Prevention: A Review of Recent Patents

Leishmaniasis is considered a neglected tropical disease having a worldwide distribution. The disease is caused by protozoa belonging to the genus Leishmania, being clinically divided into visceral leishmaniasis (VL), cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL). Domestic dogs are the main parasite reservoir and effectively participate in the protozoa transmission. The human leishmaniasis treatment is based on a selection of therapeutic compounds, but the available drugs are toxic, presenting adverse side effects. The decision to treat or not to treat seropositive dogs is under discussion in some countries, because treatment is even more toxic to animals and, also, can generate drug resistant strains. Therefore, very few treatment choices have reached the clinic for this disease and there is an urgent need of new chemotherapy for both humans and animals. This study presents a review of new patents related to treatment and prevention of Leishmania infections. Some of these patents are related to new vaccine formulations for combating leishmaniasis. Likewise, the inventions related to the cream formulations for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis are very important, avoiding the side effects of drugs during the treatment. Furthermore, anti leishmaniasis products that are extracted from nature has increasingly been patented each year, demonstrating the importance of bioprospection studies to improve the armamentarium of anti leishmaniasis drugs.