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Journal of Infectious Diseases and Therapy ISSN: 2332-0877 | Volume: 6
Infectious Diseases
4
th
Annual Congress on
Neglected Tropical & Infectious Diseases
5
th
International Conference on
August 29-30, 2018 | Boston, USA
&
Drug development for cutaneous leishmaniasis: on the importance of relating anti-parasitic efficacy to skin
pharmacokinetics
Katrien Van Bocxlaer & Gert-Jan Wijnant
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
T
oday, a small arsenal of drugs is available for the treatment of the parasitic skin infection cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), but
the unmet medical need for this disease of poverty remains high. While there has been recent progress in the discovery and
development of new drugs for visceral leishmaniasis, the search for new drugs to cure CL remains a neglected area. One aspect of
the problem is the vast challenges that the complex biology of CL poses to effective pharmacology: from drug penetration into the
infected dermal skin tissue and macrophage host cells, to exerting activity against the plethora of pathogenic
Leishmania
parasite
species. Taking the evaluation of a number of new drug candidates as an example, we will present a strategy to take compounds
across the drug development pipeline from hit identification to preclinical development. We will focus in particular on the PK/PD
relation between skin pharmacokinetics (tissue homogenates, microdialysis) and antileishmanial pharmacodynamics (qPCR, in vivo
imaging). With this approach, we aim to develop new oral or topical treatments for CL that are safe, effective, affordable and patient-
friendly.
Gert.wijnant@lshtm.ac.ukJ Infect Dis Ther 2018, Volume 6
DOI: 10.4172/2332-0877-C3-045