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In vitro antileishmanial activity of Aloe vera leaf exudate: A potential herbal therapy in leishmaniasis

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Abstract

Aloe vera has wide spread use in health products, and despite several reports on the whole plant and inner gel, little work has been performed on the leaf exudate. Our aim was to evaluate the in vitro efficacy of Aloe vera leaf exudate (AVL) in leishmaniasis. Irrespective of the disease manifestation, promastigotes from strains responsible for cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral leishmaniasis were susceptible to AVL and their IC50 ranged from 100 to 180 μg/ml. In axenic amastigotes cultured from a L. donovani strain 2001 responsible for visceral leishmaniasis, the IC50 was 6.0 μg/ml. AVL caused activation of host macrophages evident by an increased release of members of reactive oxygen species that was attenuated by preincubation with free radical scavengers. Collectively, our data indicates that AVL, via its direct leishmanicidal activity which can be further enhanced by activation of host macrophages, is an effective antileishmanial agent meriting further pharmacological investigations.

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Abbreviations

AVL:

Aloe vera leaf exudate

BSA:

Bovine serum albumin

CL:

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

DMSO:

Dimethyl sulfoxide

FBS:

Fetal bovine serum

H2DCFDA:

2’, 7’-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate

IC50 :

50% inhibitory concentration

L-NAME:

Nω-L-arginine Methyl Ester

MCL:

mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis

Medium A:

RPMI 1640 (without phenol red) with 10 % FCS and 100 μg/ ml gentamycin

MTT:

3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide

NO:

Nitric oxide

PBS:

Phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.4)

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

SAG:

sodium antimony gluconate

SOD:

superoxide dismutase

VL:

Visceral Leishmaniasis

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Acknowledgments

The work received financial support from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Govt. of India, Life Sciences Research Board, DRDO, and Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. Avijit Dutta receives a Senior Research Fellowship from Indian Council of Medical Research. We gratefully acknowledge the receipt of strains from Dr. Vanessa Yardley, London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, UK and Dr. Neeloo Singh, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunobiology, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, 4 Raja S. C. Mullick Road, Jadavpur, Kolkata, 700 032, India

    Avijit Dutta & Chitra Mandal

  2. Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, 244 B Acharya JC Bose Road, Kolkata, 700 020, India

    Goutam Mandal & Mitali Chatterjee

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  1. Avijit Dutta
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  2. Goutam Mandal
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  3. Chitra Mandal
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  4. Mitali Chatterjee
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Correspondence to Chitra Mandal or Mitali Chatterjee.

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Dutta, A., Mandal, G., Mandal, C. et al. In vitro antileishmanial activity of Aloe vera leaf exudate: A potential herbal therapy in leishmaniasis. Glycoconj J 24, 81–86 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10719-006-9014-z

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