Bioprospecção de extratos de plantas do RENISUS contra promastigotas de Leishmania spp.

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a group of zoonotic infectious parasitic diseases whose adopted therapeutic protocols have high rates of side effects. Brazil is a country with an abundant flora, with natural resources that have great therapeutic potentials. In 2002 RENISUS was created, a government program that in partnership with research institutions aims to promote the technical-scientific basis for the use of medicinal plants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the in vitro leishmanicidal effect of plants belonging to RENISUS, namely: Morus nigra L. (mulberry), Anacardium occidentale (cashew), Pereskia aculeata (ora-pro-nobis), Eugenia uniflora ( pitangueira), Momordica charantia (são caetano melon) and Psidium guajava (guava) for promastigote forms of Leishmania amazonensis and Leishmania infantum, as well as the toxicity of each extract evaluated on macrophages. Feasibility and cytotoxicity tests of the extracts were performed against both Leishmania spp. and macrophages (DH82) respectively. Results were determined by the resazurin method and statistically analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey. The extract of ora-pro-nóbis leaves obtained an IC50 of 33.78μg / mL, which presented the best leishmanicidal potential against L. infantum. All extracts tested were inactive against L. amazonensis promastigotes with IC50 greater than 250µg/mL. However, the extracts showed low selectivity index against the macrophages tested