Leishmania tropica Promastigotları ve Amastigotları Üzerine Azitromisin ve Klaritromisinin in vitro Etkisi

Leishmania (L.) tropica is one of the most common species responsible for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in the Old World including Turkey. The pentavalent antimonials are widely used as intralesional and/or intramuscular in the treatment of CL, but increase in resistance to these agents led to investigations on alternative drugs. In vitro antileishmanial activities of two macrolides, azithromycin and clarithromycin were evaluated on promastigotes in RPMI 1640 medium and amastigotes in macrophage series of L. tropica. ED50 values of azithromycin and clarithromycin were found to be 5 μg/ml and <5 μg/ml on promastigotes, and 50-75 μg/ml and <3 μg/ ml on amastigotes, respectively, while ED90 values of the same drugs were 75 μg/ml and 25 μg/ml on promastigotes and 100 μg/ml and 10 μg/ml on amastigotes, respectively. Our data suggested that clarithromycin and azithromycin were effective on both L. tropica promastigotes and amastigotes in vitro. Clarithromycin was found to be more effective than azithromycin at lower concentrations on promastigotes and amastigotes. In vivo studies should be planned to detect intracellular concentrations of these drugs for the effective route and dosage.