Dialyzable leukocyte extract therapy in immunodepressed patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis

Abstract

Immunological studies were performed in 80 patients with different types of American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL). Cellular immunodeficiency was found in seven of the patients studied, all seven resistant to standard drug therapy for this disease. The seven patients were treated with dialyzable leukicyte extract (DLE) obtained from healthy donors with previous ACL, all of whom were positive for skin and in lymphocyte DNA synthesis tests to leishmanial extracts. The seven immunodeficient patients were treated with DLE prior to the administration of the chosen drug for each patient and for up to 18 weeks after the drug was stopped. DLE treatment resulted in a clinical, parasitological, and immunological improvement in four of the seven patients. In the remaining three patients, who had had the typical syndrome of diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis (DCL) for more than 10 years, no clinical or immunological improvement could be observed.