Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, 91 (Suppl.) November 1996
Original Article
CHEMOTHERAPY - 288 - LEISHMANICIDAL AND TRYPANOCIDAL ACTIVITY OF EXTRACTS AND SECONDARY METABOLITES FROM BASIDIOMYCETES
1. OSRTOM-UR-45 (Institut Français de Recherche Scientifique pour le Dévelopment en Cooperation),u00a0Casilla de Correo 97, Asunción, Paraguay.
2. Department of Tropical Medicine, IICS (Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud).u00a0Rio de la Plata y Lagerenza, Casilla de Correo 2511, Asunción, Paraguay.
3. LB Biotechnologie of tehe University, Paul Ehrelich Str. 23, D-67663,u00a0Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Seventeen extracts and seven secondary metabolites isolated from basidiomycetes were tested in culture medium against promastigotes forms of Leishmania ssp. and bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma cruzi. All extracts from culture filtrate or mycelium were inactive against the parasites. Striatin A, striatin B, and podoscyphic acid showed in vitro activity at 10.5 and 100µg./ml-1, respectively. One compound showed activity against bloodstream forms of T. cruzi, the sesquiterpenoid naemotilin lysing the parasites by 79 %. BALB/c mice infected with L amazonensis were treated three weeks post-infection with striatin A and striatin B by subcutaneous route for 15 days at 25mg./kg. dayly. The reference drug,N-methylglucantime antimonate was administered by subcutaneous injections at 28mg.Sbv/Kg for fifteen days. The treatment with striatin A produced a slow decreasing of parasite burdens in footpad by 17.83% and the treatment with striatin B was suspended after three days due to the high toxicity.
