Abstract
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis is a current public health problem in Syria. It causes different skin lesions that vary in their severity from spontaneously heal lesions to permanent deformity ones. However, the used treatments have many disadvantages as their high toxicity and many side effects. Flavonoids including Apigenin reported to have many anti parasitic properties. As well as their preference as potential therapeutic alternatives in the treatment of Leishmaniasis due to its low side effects and toxicity. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of Apigenin against L.tropica amastigotes in vitro using Leishmania-Macrophage Interaction Assay. Our study demonstrated the possibility of efficacy of Apigenin against L.tropica amastigotes since Apigenin reduced the infection index at IC50 60.44 µM and this requires subsequent studies in humans and using Apigenin as a candidate for the chemotherapeutic treatment against Leishmaniasis.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdrebbi SB, Latefa H, Nafissa C, Kaouel M (2019) Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: endemic regions and epidemiological characteristics of cases declared at University Hospital Center of Tlemcen, Algeria. J Pharm Pharmacol 7:249–254
Abrankó L, García-Reyes JF, Molina‐Díaz A (2011) In‐source fragmentation and accurate mass analysis of multiclass flavonoid conjugates by electrospray ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry. J Mass Spectrom 46:478–488
Antwi CA, Amisigo CM, Adjimani JP, Theresa MG (2019) In vitro activity and mode of action of phenolic compounds on Leishmania donovani. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 13:e0007206
Dantas-Torres F, Lorusso V, Testini G, Milena de PCLA, Figueredo D, Stanneck NN, Mencke S, Brandão-Filho P, Alves LC, Otranto D (2010) Detection of Leishmania infantum in Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks from Brazil and Italy. Parasitol Res 106:857–60
Fever D (2009) Kala-azar, Black Fever, Dumdum Fever, Oriental Sore, Tropical Sore, Uta, Chiclero Ulcer, Aleppo Boi, Pian Bois; Espundia
Fonseca-Silva F, Canto-Cavalheiro MM, Menna-Barreto RFS, Almeida-Amaral EE (2015) Effect of Apigenin on Leishmania amazonensis is associated with reactive oxygen species production followed by mitochondrial dysfunction. J Nat Prod 78:880–884
Fonseca-Silva F, Inacio JDF, Marilene M, Canto-Cavalheiro FS, Menna-Barreto R, Almeida-Amara EE (2016a) Oral efficacy of apigenin against cutaneous leishmaniasis: involvement of reactive oxygen species and autophagy as a mechanism of action. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 10:e0004442
Fonseca-Silva F, Inacio JD, Canto-Cavalheiro, MM, Menna-Barreto RF, Almeida-Amaral EE (2016b) Oral efficacy of apigenin against cutaneous leishmaniasis: involvement of reactive oxygen species and autophagy as a mechanism of action. PLoS Neglect Trop Dis. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004442
Habif TP (2015) Clinical dermatology e-book: a color guide to diagnosis and therapy. Elsevier Health Sciences, Amsterdam
Hayani K, Dandashli A, Weisshaar E (2015) Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Syria: clinical features, current status and the effects of war. Acta Dermato-Venereol 95:62–66
McGwire BS, Satoskar AR (2013) Leishmaniasis: clinical syndromes and treatment. QJM Int J Med 107:7–14
Mead JR, McNair N (2006) Antiparasitic activity of flavonoids and isoflavones against Cryptosporidium parvum and Encephalitozoon intestinalis. FEMS Microbiol Lett 259:153–157
Mirzavand S, Hatam G, Moein M, Zarshenas M (2019) In vitro and in vivo assessment of anti-leishmanial efficacy of leaf, fruit, and fractions of Juniperus excelsa against axenic amastigotes of Leishmania major and topical formulation in BALB/c mice. Iran Red Crescent Med J 21(6):e87754
Norouzinezhad F, Ghaffari F, Norouzinejad A, Kaveh F, Gouya MM (2016) Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran: results from an epidemiological study in urban and rural provinces. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 6:614–619
Ożarowski M, Radosław Kujawski P, Mikołajczak K, Wielgus A, Klejewski H, Wolski, Seremak-Mrozikiewicz A (2019) In vitro and in vivo activities of flavonoids–apigenin, baicalin, chrysin, scutellarin–in regulation of hypertension–a review for their possible effects in pregnancy-induced hypertension. Herba Polonica 65:55–70
Salehi B, Venditti A, Sharifi-Rad M, Kręgiel D, Sharifi-Rad J, Durazzo A, Lucarini M, Antonello S, Eliana BS, Ettore N (2019) The therapeutic potential of apigenin. Int J Mol Sci 20:1305
Santos B, Mendes A, Bezerra-Souza S, Aragaki E, Rodrigues E, Umehara JHGL, Márcia DL, Susan PR, Luiz FDP (2019) Ethnopharmacology study of plants from atlantic forest with Leishmanicidal activity. Evidence-Based Complement Altern Med 2019:8780914. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/8780914
Singh N, Mishra BB, Bajpai S, Singh RK, Vinod KT (2014) Natural product based leads to fight against leishmaniasis. Bioorg Med Chem 22:18–45
Solano-Gallego L, Rossi L, Scroccaro AM, Montarsi F, Caldin M, Furlanello T, Michele Trotta (2012) Detection of Leishmania infantum DNA mainly in Rhipicephalus sanguineus male ticks removed from dogs living in endemic areas of canine leishmaniosis. Parasit Vectors 5:98
Sung B, Chung HY, Kim ND (2016) Role of apigenin in cancer prevention via the induction of apoptosis and autophagy. J Cancer Prevent 21:216
Sunter J (2017) Shape, form, function and Leishmania pathogenicity: from textbook descriptions to biological understanding. Open Biol 7:170165
Tasdemir D, Kaiser M, Brun R, Yardley V, Schmidt TJ, Tosun F, Peter, Rüedi (2006) Antitrypanosomal and antileishmanial activities of flavonoids and their analogues: in vitro, in vivo, structure-activity relationship, and quantitative structure-activity relationship studies. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 50:1352–1364
Tiuman TS, Adriana O, Santos T, Ueda-Nakamura PD, Filho B, Celso VN (2011) Recent advances in leishmaniasis treatment. Int J Infect Dis 15:e525–e532
Torres-Guerrero E, Quintanilla-Cedillo MR, Ruiz-Esmenjaud J, Arenas R (2017) Leishmaniasis: a review. F1000Research 6:750
Wang M, Firrman J, Liu LS, Yam K (2019a) A review on flavonoid apigenin: dietary intake, ADME, antimicrobial effects, and interactions with human gut microbiota. BioMed Res Int 2019:7010467. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/7010467
Wang PP, Lv JS, Xie T, Wang XD (2019b) Apigenin alleviates myocardial reperfusion injury in rats by downregulating miR-15b. Med Sci Monit Int Med J Exp Clin Res 25:2764
Yanik M, Gurel MS, Simsek Z, Kati M (2004) The psychological impact of cutaneous leishmaniasis. Clin Exp Dermatol Clin Dermatol 29:464–467
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Dr. Naddaf has nothing to disclose. Dr. Haddad has nothing to disclose.
Ethical statement
All procedures performed in our study were in accordance with the care and use for animals protocol of Center for Epidemiological and Biological Studies of Leishmania Parasites in Damascus University.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Naddaf, N., Haddad, S. Apigenin effect against Leishmania tropica amastigotes in vitro. J Parasit Dis 44, 574–578 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-020-01230-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-020-01230-8