Tolnaftate inhibits ergosterol production and impacts cell viability of Leishmania sp.

Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. The treatment of all forms of leishmaniasis relies on first-line drug, pentavalent antimonial, and in cases of drug failure, the second-line drug amphotericin B has been used. Besides the high toxicity of drugs, parasites can be resistant to antimonial in some areas of the World, making it necessary to perform further studies for the characterization of new antileishmanial agents. Thus, the aim of the present work was to evaluate the leishmanicidal activity of tolnaftate, a selective reversible and non-competitive inhibitor of the fungal enzyme squalene epoxidase, which is involved in the biosynthesis of ergosterol, essential to maintain membrane physiology in fungi as well as trypanosomatids. Tolnaftate eliminated promastigote forms of L. (L.) amazonensis, L. (V.) braziliensis and L. (L.) infantum (EC

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Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.