Natural products derived steroids as potential anti-leishmanial agents; disease prevalence, underlying mechanisms and future perspectives

Effect of Alcoholic Extract of Carrichtera annua Plant on the Growth of Leishmania donovani Parasite, In vitro Study

“…The effectiveness of the alcoholic extract in inhibiting the growth of the L. donovani parasites is attributed to the fact that it contains many active substances such as alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, sterols, and volatile oils that make the cell membrane completely permeable, which leads to the entry of some substances that cause toxicity cytotoxic or the merging of the entering materials with other substances inside the cells, which leads to the disruption of their work or turning them into harmful substances causing the parasite to die or it may affect the parasite's cell membrane, causing it to necrosis [20]. Alkaloids also inhibit the work of the topoisomerase enzyme, which participates in the various vital activities of the parasite, including the process of DNA replication and thus stopping the physiological activities and the parasite's destruction [21], [22]. In addition to inhibiting the activity of Acetylcholinesterase enzyme (AchE), which prevents the passage of ions through the cell membrane and affects the vital activities of the parasite, thus causing cell breakdown and parasite death [23], [24].…”

Therapeutic efficacy of β-sitosterol treatment on Trypanosoma congolense infection, anemia development, and trans-sialidase (TconTS1) gene expression

“…More importantly, the anti-leishmanial efficacy of the compound was reported in addition to in vitro antitrypanosomal activity against T. brucei brucei ( Hoet et al, 2007 ). Although the mechanism of action of β-sitosterol in parasitic infection is not fully understood, the compound has been proposed to potentially disrupt the integrity of the parasite’s lipid bilayer, inhibit some enzyme activities, modulate host immune response, alteration of sterol metabolism and induction of apoptosis in some parasites ( Pramanik et al, 2020 ; David et al, 2021 ; Kasirzadeh et al, 2021 ; Elawad et al, 2023 ; Shokry et al, 2023 ). Interestingly, our recent investigations employing in vitro kinetic analysis and molecular dynamic simulation studies proved the efficacy of the compound against T. congolense sialidase and phospholipase A 2 ( Aminu et al, 2023 ).…”