Reduction of Leishmania activity by N‐acetyl ‐L‐cysteine: in vivo study

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a emergent disease characterized by different clinical manifestations in both humans and dogs. The clinical manifestation of this disease comprises a widespread range of expressions, such as skin ulcers at the set of the infection or dissemination in visceral organs followed by leucopenia, anemia, fever and weakness. Predominant clinical features of cutaneous leishmaniasis are ulcerative painless skin lesions. Several data reported that pain is associated with human and dog leishmaniasis, out with areas of painless ulcerative lesions per se. Actually, current medications used for leishmaniasis management are characterized by several side effects and, in addition, some cases of the disease are refractory to the treatment. On this background it is mandatory the identification of new and safe candidates for designing less toxic and low‐cost remedies. Therefore, the search for new leishmanicidal compounds is indispensable. In the present paper we investigated how orally N‐acetyl ‐L‐cysteine (NAC) supplementation affected parameters of inflammation and pain in subcutaneous Leishmania (L). amazonensis infected BALB/c mice, to better understand the contribution of this treatment in the pathogenesis and progress of leishmaniasis. The findings of our study provided the scientific data demonstrating that L. amazonensis infection induces inflammation and pain in BALB/c mice that are reversed by administration of NAC.