Background: Cutaneous and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis are parasitic diseases characterized by skin manifestations. In Brazil, Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis is one of the etiological agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis. The therapeutic arsenal routinely employed to treat infected patients is unsatisfactory, especially for pentavalent antimonials, as they are often highly toxic, poorly tolerated and of variable effectiveness. This study aimed to evaluate in vitro the leishmanicidal activity of toxins isolated from Crotalus durissus terrificus venom as a new approach for the treatment of leishmaniasis.

Methods: The comparative effects of crotamine, crotoxin, gyrotoxin, convulxin and PLA2 on bone marrow-derived macrophages infected with L. (L.) amazonensis as well as the release of TGF-β from the treated macrophages were studied.

Results and Discussion: Crotamine had the strongest inhibitory effect on parasite growth rate (IC50: 25.65±0.52 μg/mL), while convulxin showed the weakest inhibitory effect (IC50: 52.7±2.21 μg/mL). In addition, TGF-β was significantly reduced after the treatment with all toxins evaluated.

Conclusion: The Crotalus durissus terrificus toxins used in this study displayed significant activity against L. (L.) amazonensis, indicating that all of them could be a potential alternative for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis.

背景：皮肤和皮肤皮肤利什曼病是以皮肤表现为特征的寄生虫病。在巴西，亚马逊利什曼原虫（Leishmania）是皮肤利什曼病的病原体之一。常规用于治疗感染患者的治疗武库不能令人满意，特别是对于五价锑，因为它们通常具有高毒性，耐受性差和功效不一。这项研究旨在评估体外分离从猪屎豆的毒液中产生的毒素的利什曼活性，作为治疗利什曼病的一种新方法。

方法：研究了巴豆胺，crotoxin，gyrotoxin，convul​​xin和PLA2对被亚马逊L.（L.）感染的骨髓源巨噬细胞的影响，以及经处理的巨噬细胞中TGF-β的释放。

结果与讨论：巴豆胺对寄生虫生长的抑制作用最强（IC50：25.65±0.52μg/ mL），而惊厥毒素的抑制作用最弱（IC50：52.7±2.21μg/ mL）。另外，在评估所有毒素后，TGF-β显着降低。

结论：本研究中使用的猪屎肠曲霉毒素对亚马逊L.（L.）具有显着活性，表明它们都可能是治疗皮肤利什曼病的潜在替代品。