In-vitro Study on the Anti-leishmania Effects of Silver Nanoparticles on Leishmanaia Major Promastigotes

  Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of the most important health-threatening diseases in Iran and other countries. Glucantime is currently used to treat this disease, but due to its side effects and high resistance, alternative therapies such as the use of nanoparticles have been considered by researchers. This study aims to investigate the anti-leishmania activity of silver nanoparticles on Leishmania major in vitro.

This is an experimental study on the anti-leishmania activities of silver nanoparticles at different concentrations of 0.75-0.96 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 hours of exposure to 106 live Leishmania major promastigotes. The numbers of live parasites were counted by Trypan Blue on a neobar slide using optical microscope (Hemocytometer method). Glucantime and distilled water were considered as positive and negative controls, respectively. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) was calculated by SigmaPlotTM software, version 13. All reactions were done three times and their average was considered as final result.

All concentrations of silver nanoparticles had anti-leishmania activity, where the concentration of 96 µg/ml had the highest effect (100%) 72 hours after exposure. The IC50 was obtained 36.67, 27.2 and 21.08 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 hours of exposure, respectively.

Silver nanoparticles have an inhibitory effect on the growth of Leishmania major in different concentrations. However, further in-vivo studies are needed to determine the effictivness of silver nanoparticles.