Abstract
Sulfated polysaccharides from marine macroalgae have been shown to possess a variety of biological activities against fungi, bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. In this study, the in vitro activity of algal polysaccharides against Leishmania infantum (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) was investigated. The polysaccharides were extracted from different macroalgae of the Mediterranean Sea: Chaetomorpha linum, Agardhiella subulata, Gracilaria viridis, Gracilaria bursa-pastoris, Hypnea cornuta, Sargassum muticum, and Undaria pinnatifida. Preliminary results showed a good anti-leishmanial activity of the investigated species, encouraging the focus on their use as natural resources in order to match integrated management strategies for the employment of local macroalgae.
Highlights
Marine algae are great sources of natural products that play an invaluable role in the drug discovery process
Among the different diseases of interest for scientific research, leishmaniasis represents an important problem for public health and, at present, few works have demonstrated the anti-leishmanial activity of seaweed extracts [5,6,7,8,9]
Seven species of macroalgae were tested to evaluate the anti-leishmanial activity of polysaccharide extract: the green alga Chaetomorpha linum, the red algae Gracilaria bursa-pastoris, Gracilaria viridis, Agardhiella subulata, Hypnea cornuta, and the brown algae Sargassum muticum and Undaria pinnatifida
Summary
Marine algae are great sources of natural products that play an invaluable role in the drug discovery process. Many reports have been published about isolated compounds from algae with biological activity, demonstrating their ability to produce metabolites different from those found in terrestrial plants, with high complexity and unlimited diversity of pharmacological and/or biological properties [1]. Leishmaniasis has several diverse clinical manifestations: ulcerative skin lesions, destructive mucosal inflammation, and disseminated visceral infection (Kala Azar). Epidemiology, immunopathology, and outcome are diverse, since infection occurs in multiple endemic regions, in both children and adults, and is caused by nearly two dozen distinct Leishmania species [11]. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is more widely distributed, with about one-third of cases occurring in each of three regions, the Americas, the Mediterranean basin, and Western Asia from the Middle East to Central Asia [12]
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