The in vitro Susceptibility of Macrophages Infected with Amastigotes of Leishmania spp. to Pentavalent Antimonial Drugs and Other Compounds with Special Relevance to Cutaneous Isolates

Variation in clinical response to treatment of leishmaniasis with pentavalent antimonial compounds has been reported on many occasions. It has been assumed that the variations arise from the patient or drug potency since there has previously been no way of checking the sensitivity of the parasites. The development of in vitro infected macrophage systems has allowed drug sensitivity to be monitored (Berman and Wyler, 1980; Neal and Matthews, 1982).