Antileishmanial Marine Compounds: A Review

Leishmaniasis is widely ignored in discussions on the priorities of tropical diseases, and the alreadyexisting drugs present high toxicity or teratogenicity, as well as reduced efficacy due to the emergence of resistant strains. Marine natural products have received increasing attention over the last few decades because of the isolation of metabolites found in many products, with structural pattern not available in terrestrial organisms. Several molecules of marine origin have been investigated in respect of their effects on different species of parasites that cause leishmaniasis. In this study, we review the pharmacological information obtained from the in vitro and in vivo assays on such metabolites.