Thymoquinone induced leishmanicidal effect via programmed cell death in Leishmania donovani. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Thymoquinone Induced Leishmanicidal Effect via Programmed Cell Death in.
ACS Omega. 2022 Mar 29 ;7(12):10718-10728. Epub 2022 Mar 15. PMID: 35382308
Mohammad Islamuddin
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or kala-azar is a vector-borne dreaded protozoal infection that is caused by the parasite. With increases in the dramatic infection rates, present drug toxicity, resistance, and the absence of an approved vaccine, the development of new antileishmanial compounds from plant sources remains the keystone for the control of visceral leishmaniasis. In this study, we evaluated the leishmanicidal effect of thymoquinone againstwith anandmodel. Thymoquinone exhibited potent antipromastigote activity with ICand ICconcentrations achieved at 6.33± 1.21 and 20.71 ± 2.15 μM, respectively, whereas the ICand ICconcentrations were found to be 7.83± 1.65 and 27.25 ± 2.20 μM against the intramacrophagic form of amastigotes, respectively. Morphological changes in promastigotes and growth reversibility study following treatment confirmed the leishmanicidal effect of thymoquinone. Further, thymoquinone exhibited leishmanicidal activities againstpromastigote through cytoplasmic shrinkage, membrane blebbing, chromatin condensation, cellular and nuclear shrinkage, and DNA fragmentation, as observed under scanning and transmission electron microscopy analyses. The antileishmanial activity was exerted via programmed cell death as proved by exposure of phosphatidylserine, DNA nicking by TUNEL assay, and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. Thymoquinone at a concentration of 200μM was devoid of any cytotoxic effects against mammalian macrophage cells. Thymoquinone showed strong leishmanicidal activity against, which is mediated via an apoptosis mode of parasitic cell death, and accordingly, thymoquinone may be the source of a new lead molecule for the cure of VL.