Fe3O4@Bio-MOF Nanoparticles Combined with Artemisinin, Glu-cantime®, or Shark Cartilage Extract on Iranian Strain of Leishmania major (MRHO/IR/75/ER): An In-Vitro and In-Vivo Study

Background: in the present study, we examined the effects of fe3o4@bio-mof nanoparticle (nano-fo) plus artemisinin (art) and glucantime (glu) or shark cartilage extract (shce) on leishmania major in vitro and in vivo. methods: this experimental study was conducted at the laboratory of department of parasitol-ogy, tarbiat modares university, tehran, iran during 2016-2017. the promastigote and amastigote assays were performed were conducted at the presence of 3.12- 400 µg/ml of the drug combinations. according to in vitro ic50 results, the combinations of 12.5µg/ml nano-fo with 25 µg/ml art as well as 200 µg/ml glu and 0.5 ml of 20 mg/kg of shce were used to treat balb/c mice. during and at the end of the treatment, the lesion sizes were measured. parasite loads, cytokine levels were evaluated at the end of the treatment. results: the ic50 of fe3o4@bio-mof-artemisinin (nano-fo/art), fe3o4@bio-mof-glucantime (nano-fo/glu), and fe3o4@bio-mof-shark cartilage extract (nano-fo/shce) on promasitigotes were 12.58±0.12, 235±0.17, and 18.54±0.15, respectively. these results on amastigotes were 10.32±0.01, 187±0.03, and 338±0.07 µg/ml, respectively. the apoptosis per-centage of these combinations were 32.54%, 20.59%, and 15.68% in promastigotes and 15.68%, 12.84%, and 3.51% in infected macrophages, respectively with no toxicity on uninfected macro-phages. in vivo results showed that the size of lesions significantly decreased against all drugs combinations, but nano-fo/art combination with selectivity index of 23.62 value was safe, and more effective on healing of lesions than other drugs combinations (p=0.003). conclusion: this study suggested that nano-fo/art combination can be considered as an anti-leishmania combination therapy in cl induced by l. major.