Molecular Pharmacology of Chemo-resistant Leishmania

Abstract

Infectious diseases leishmaniosis among them, constitute a leading cause of death world wide, especially in the developing world, where they remain as an important cause of concern and has become a serious problem because of the everyday enhanced risk of co infection with HIV and the increasing frequency of resistance development of the parasites to the drug agents. Emergence of drug resistance is usually associated with changes in the expression of an specific membrane P-glycoprotein, but also includes physiological responses with high complexity. In the present review we summarize results which emphasize that the comprehension of the molecular pharmacology of drug-resistant phenotype must include, as a way for identifying new strategies for the control of the disease, the understanding of the multiple biochemical and functional parasite mechanisms involved.