Investigation of the role of rapamicyn in restriction of Leishmania amazonensis replication in macrophages and in vivo.

Abstract

Leishmania amazonensis is a Leishmaniasis causative pathogen present in Brazil. This endemic disease is incident mainly in tropical countries, classified by World Health Organization as a tropical neglected disease and is the second major cause of death among parasitic diseases. Nowadays, the available treatments to Leishmaniasis are expensive and long during, offering health risks to the infected ones. The selection of drug resistant parasites is a challenge to the efficient disease treatment. Accordingly, the major aim of this project is to investigate new potential drugs to L. amazonensis replication control. Preliminary results demonstrates that autophagy is important to control Leishmania infection in macrophages. In this context, we will investigate the role of rapamycin activity (autophagy inducer drug with lower toxicity) to control infection in vitro with macrophages and in vivo with mice. Additionally, we aim to investigate other molecules that could synergize with rapamycin during Leishmania infection treatment in mice. The development of this project can support the future development of therapeutic strategies to Leishmania infection.