assessment of the effects of a novel herbal immunomodulator drug (imod) on cytokine profiles in experimental canine visceral leishmaniasis: a preliminary survey.

background: cytokines play a fundamental role in the regulation of immune responses in remission and/or relapsing of leishmaniasis. therefore, immunotherapy for the treatment of canine visceral leishmaniasis (cvl) has represented a principle approach in control of the infection. the present research aimed to evaluating the immunotherapeutic potential of a novel herbal immunomodulator drug (imod) on cvl. methods: twelve mongrel dogs were intravenously infected with iranian strain of l. infantum and randomly divided into three groups; 1: negative control (non-infected), 2: immunotherapy with imod and 3: positive control (non-treated). cell proliferation and th1-/th2-type cytokines were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (pbmc) by cell proliferation kit i (mtt) and enzyme-linked immunospot (elispot) assays, respectively. results : at the 60 days follow-up assessment, no adverse effects were observed in treated interventional group. cellular proliferation assay indicated that pbmcs of imod group had higher stimulation index (si) than positive control group ( p <0.05). enhancement of cd4+ t cells such as il-2, il-4 & il-10 were detected in negative control group due to in vitro imod stimulation 30 days post-treatment. in accordance to decreasing trends of th1 & th2 cytokines in positive control group, the mean number of ifn-γ, il-2, il-4 and il-10 spot forming cells (sfcs) down regulated for imod group during the study. conclusion : these data indicate that imod had immunomodulatory potential but is not sufficient for total parasitic cure due to balance of th1/th2 cytokines. this is a preliminary study and we propose to undertake a series of experiments to evaluate the cvl due to in vitro modulatory effects of imod.