Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39849543›Full record

ArticleParasites & vectors2025

Pretreatment with serine protease inhibitors impairs Leishmania amazonensis survival on macrophages.

Patrícia de Almeida Machado, Pollyanna Stephanie Gomes, Elaine Soares Coimbra, Herbert Leonel de Matos Guedes

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Parasites & vectors, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Exploring theAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Patrícia de Almeida MachadoLaboratório de Imunologia Clínica, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21040-360, Brazil.
Pollyanna Stephanie GomesLaboratório de Imunologia Clínica, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21040-360, Brazil.
Elaine Soares CoimbraNúcleo de Pesquisas Em Parasitologia (NUPEP), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, MG, 36036-900, Brazil.
Herbert Leonel de Matos GuedesLaboratório de Imunologia Clínica, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21040-360, Brazil. herbert@ioc.fiocruz.br.

Funding

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico PQ-2 (304712/2016-7)Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro E-26/202 421/2017Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro E-26/202.942/2019
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundLeishmaniases are neglected tropical diseases with great clinical and epidemiological importance. The current chemotherapy available for the treatment of leishmaniasis presents several problems, such as adverse effects, toxicity, long treatment time, and parasite resistance. The discovery of new therapeutic alternatives is extremely essential, and the discovery of cellular targets is a tool that helps in the development of new drugs. Serine proteases emerge as important virulence factors in the Leishmania genus, as they participate in important processes involved in their infectivity, virulence, and survival. In this work, we evaluated the leishmanicidal effect of different serine protease inhibitors (Benzamidine, PF-429242, PMSF, TLCK, and TPCK). Additionally, we determined the implication of pretreatment with these inhibitors on the entry and survival of parasites within macrophages, as well as the conversion of promastigotes into amastigotes, to discover the importance of serine proteases in the establishment of infection and, consequently, as targets for new drugs for Leishmania.

resultsIn general, the inhibitors had low toxicity in host macrophages, and three showed some effect in promastigote and amastigote forms of L. amazonensis (PF-429242, TLCK, and TPCK). Using a short incubation interval, we pretreated L. amazonensis promastigotes with these five compounds before in vitro infection. Pretreatment with PF-429242, TLCK, and TPCK considerably compromised the survival of these parasites inside host macrophages, without altering the entry of promastigotes into these cells and differentiation into amastigotes. In addition, treatment with PF-429242 and TPCK was able to reduce the serine proteases' enzymatic activity using subtilisin substrate on L. amazonensis promastigote lysate.

conclusionsThis work highlights the importance of serine proteases in L. amazonensis as a possible target for new therapeutic alternatives in Leishmania spp.

Indexed as

Antiprotozoal AgentsLeishmaniaLeishmania mexicanaMacrophagesSerine Proteinase InhibitorsAnimalsBenzamidinesLeishmaniasisMiceMice, Inbred BALB CSerine ProteasesAntiprotozoal AgentsBenzamidinesSerine ProteasesSerine Proteinase InhibitorsLeishmania amazonensisSerine proteasesSerine proteases inhibitors

Identifiers

PMID39849543
PMCPMC11760092

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.