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N-Chlorotaurine shows high in vitro activity against promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania species

¹ Department of Medical Parasitology, Clinical Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, 1095 Vienna, Austria

² Department of Hygiene, Microbiology and Social Medicine, Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Innsbruck Medical University, Fritz-Pregl-Strasse 3, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

³ Department of Medicine I, Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

⁴ Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (CeMM), Vienna, Austria

Correspondence
Julia Walochnik
julia.walochnik{at}meduniwien.ac.at

Received March 16, 2009
Accepted June 16, 2009

Protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania are the causative agents of life-threatening visceral as well as cutaneous and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. First-line drugs are antimonials, but toxicity and resistance in some endemic areas cause serious problems. In the current study, the antileishmanial activity of the weak oxidant N-chlorotaurine (NCT) was investigated. NCT is a derivative of the amino acid taurine produced by granulocytes and monocytes during oxidative burst, but can also be synthesized chemically and used topically as an antiseptic at a concentration of 1 % (55 mM) in vivo. NCT susceptibility tests were performed in vitro with promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania infantum and Leishmania donovani. As NH₄Cl is known to increase the activity of NCT by the formation of monochloramine (NH₂Cl), co-treatment assays were included in the study. Mean EC₅₀ values after 1 h of treatment were 5.94 mM for L. infantum and 9.8 mM for L. donovani promastigotes. Co-treatment with 5.5 mM NCT plus 19 mM NH₄Cl led to complete killing of promastigotes of both strains within 15 min. Amastigotes were inactivated by treatment with 2 mM NCT alone. The results of this study indicate a high potential of NCT against Leishmania species.