Anti-Leishmania efecct of intralesional procaíne and dibucaíne in hamsters

Abstract

The effect of intralesional treatment (IL) with Procaine and Dibucaine was compared with standard dosages of Glucantime® administered intramuscularly (IM) to attain clinical and parasitological cures in skin lesions in outbred male hamsters infected with Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis. Results revealed that all drugs tested reduced significantly (P < 0.01) average lesion sizes in experimental animals when compared with those untreated. Local treatment with dibucaine was as clinically efficient as systemic Glucantime®, and more successful for clinical resolution than with procaine. Viable amastigotes were detected in nodules and/or scars in 100% of the evaluated hamsters 75-165 days after the end of the treatment ended, using smears, conventional histopathology, culture in NNN medium and the indirect immunoperoxidase method, suggesting that measurement of lesion sizes is not a valid criterion for evaluating the chemotherapeutic efficiency in experimental CL. The therapeutic clinic effectiveness of local anesthetics appeared to be associated with their half-life times as well as their lipid solubility. Preliminarily, these results appeared to support the inclusion of “cainic” local anesthetics as part of the alternative armamentarium in the treatment of animal and human cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL).

Keywords

• leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis
• cutaneous leishmaniasis
• hamster
• procaine
• dibucaine