Abstract

Leishmania major (L. major) and Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) are parasitic infections that affect millions of people, but are often placed in the class of “neglected diseases” since it primarily impacts poor societies. Thus, the development of low-cost, effective, new drugs that can treat such infections is imperative. Organotin compounds have been proven to be broad and potent biocides against eukaryotic infections ranging from fungicides to acaricides. However, the use of these compounds against such parasitic infections has not been investigated, possibly due to their immunotoxicity. For this project a novel immuno safe organotin compound [MeS(CH2)3]2SnCl2 was evaluated and compared to commercially available organotin compounds such as Ph2SnCl2, (butyl)2SnCl2 and (octyl)2SnCl2. L. major luke and T. cruzi CL Brener were the mutant strains used for this project, since they have been modified to express luciferin which creates bioluminescence in the presence of luciferase. Our preliminary assays provided evidence of toxicity against L. major; however, at the relatively high concentrations, ~ 3-4 mM. To date the materials exhibited no useful effectiveness against T. cruzi. Future work involves testing cell viability, and targeting the different parasitic stages.

Authors

• Itzel Amacalli Tejeda, University of Texas at El Paso

• Rosa Maldonado, University of Texas at El Paso

• Keith Pannell, University of Texas at El Paso