Avaliação da atividade leishmanicida de espécies vegetais presentes na lista do Renisus

Abstract

Leishmaniasis are neglected diseases caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania. Today, there are few drugs available for the treatment of leishmaniasis, with drugs that have numerous adverse effects and high costs. The present work aimed to evaluate the leishmanicidal effects of Schinus terebinthifolius, Phyllanthus niruri, Mentha piperita, Matricaria recutita, Maytenus ilicifolia, Syzygium jambolanum, Ruta graveolens, Anacardium occidentale, Aloe vera and Psidium guajava, available in the list of medicinal plants of SUS’s interest (RENISUS). Thus, cytotoxicity was evaluated against macrophages of the J774.A1 strain, using the MTT (3- [4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl] -2,5-diphenyltetrazolium) colorimetric assay, as well as the evaluation of leishmanicidal activity and nitric oxide production in macrophages infected by Leishmania chagasi and Leishmania amazonensis amastigotes. It was observed that none of the tested plants showed a cytotoxic effect for macrophages of lineage J774.A1 or was active against Leishmania chagasi amastigotes up to the maximum concentration used (100 μg / mL), although Anacardium occidentale and Aloe vera induce an increase in nitric oxide in culture of macrophages infected with Leishmania chagasi. In the evaluation of leishmanicidal activity against Leishmania amazonensis amastigotes, the species Aloe vera showed activity with a maximum effect of 40.4%, in addition to Phyllanthus niruri, Mentha peperita, Matricaria racutita Psidium guajava, Ruta graveolens and Aloe vera inducing the increase in nitric oxide levels by macrophages. In short, seven plants have an immunomodulatory effect on macrophages infected with the parasite, in addition to the study of Aloe vera being useful for the development of new drugs based on medicinal plants.