Liposomal formulations in the pharmacological treatment of leishmaniasis: a review

Abstract

Conventional chemotherapy for leishmaniasis includes considerably toxic drugs and reports of drug-resistance are not uncommon. Liposomal encapsulated drugs appear as an option for the treatment of leishmaniasis, providing greater efficacy for the active and reducing its side effects by promoting superior tissue absorption, favouring drug penetration into the macrophages, and retarding its clearance from the site of action. In this paper, a review on the advances achieved with liposome-based anti-leishmaniasis drug delivery systems is presented. Formulations prepared with either conventional or modified (sugar-coated, cationic, niosomes, peptides- and antibodies-bounded) liposomes for the delivery of pentavalent antimonials, amphotericin B, pentamidine, paromomycyn, and miltefosine were covered. This literature review depicts a scenario of no effective therapeutic agents for the treatment of this neglected disease, where liposomal formulations appear to improve the effectiveness of the available antileishmania agents.

Keywords:

• Anti-leishmanial therapy
• drug delivery
• leishmaniasis
• liposomes
• zoonotic diseases

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) for the financial support (#2013/01536-1, 2014/12443-7).