Background and aim: Pentavalent antimony compounds are the first line treatment for cutaneous leishmaniasis. Clinical resistance to pentavalent antimony in the form of meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime) has been recognized as a problem in leishmaniasis. Herein, clinical response to Glucantime were studied in patients suffered from cutaneous leishmaniasis.Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectio...

An open trial to evaluate the azithromycin efficacy in cutaneous leishmaniasis patients was carried out in Manaus (AM), where Leishmania (Viannia) guyanensis is the main etiologic agent. Forty-one patients with skin lesions of less than 12 weeks duration, without specific treatment for the last three months and a positive imprint to Leishmania sp. were included. From these, 31 (75.6%) were male...

Pentavalent organo-vanadates have been put forth as transition state analogues for a variety of phosphoryl transfer reactions. In particular, uridine 2',3'-cyclic vanadate (U>v) has been proposed to resemble the transition state during catalysis by ribonuclease A (RNase A). Here, this hypothesis is tested. Lys41 of RNase A is known to donate a hydrogen bond to a nonbridging phosphoryl oxygen in...

Organophosphorus (OP) nerve agents such as (S)-sarin are among the most highly toxic compounds that have been synthesized. Engineering enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of nerve agents ("bioscavengers") is an emerging prophylactic approach to diminish their toxic effects. Although its native function is not known, diisopropyl fluorophosphatase (DFPase) from Loligo vulgaris catalyzes the hydr...

Leishmaniasis is a complex disease, with visceral and cutaneous manifestations, and is caused by over 15 different species of the protozoan parasite genus Leishmania. There are significant differences in the sensitivity of these species both to the standard drugs, for example, pentavalent antimonials and miltefosine, and those on clinical trial, for example, paromomycin. Over 60% of patients wi...

Leishmania are protozoan parasites distributed worldwide. About 1.5-2.0 million cases are reported in the world annually from this disease and the death toll is estimated to be 57,000. Along with Brazil, Sudan and Bangladesh, India contributes to 90 per cent of the global burden of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The absence of effective vaccines and vector control programmes, makes chemotherapy t...

Homing endonucleases are distinguished by their ability to catalyze the cleavage of double-stranded DNA with extremely high specificity. I-PpoI endonuclease, a homing endonuclease from the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, is a small enzyme (2 x 20 kDa) of known three-dimensional structure that catalyzes the cleavage of a long target DNA sequence (15 base pairs). Here, a detailed chemical mecha...