Weatherhead JE, Woc-Colburn L. Therapeutic options and vaccine development in the treatment of leishmaniasis. World J Pharmacol 2015; 4(2): 210-218 [DOI: 10.5497/wjp.v4.i2.210]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Laila Woc-Colburn, MD, DTM&H, FACP, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Room BCM164A, One Baylor Plaza, BCM113, Houston, TX 77030, United States. woccolbu@bcm.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Tropical Medicine
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Pharmacol. Jun 9, 2015; 4(2): 210-218 Published online Jun 9, 2015. doi: 10.5497/wjp.v4.i2.210
Therapeutic options and vaccine development in the treatment of leishmaniasis
Jill E Weatherhead, Laila Woc-Colburn
Jill E Weatherhead, Laila Woc-Colburn, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Jill E Weatherhead, Laila Woc-Colburn, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Jill E Weatherhead, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to the paper.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Laila Woc-Colburn, MD, DTM&H, FACP, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Room BCM164A, One Baylor Plaza, BCM113, Houston, TX 77030, United States. woccolbu@bcm.edu
Telephone: +1-713-7981199 Fax: +1-713-7982299
Received: November 29, 2014 Peer-review started: November 29, 2014 Revised: January 28, 2015 Accepted: March 30, 2015 Article in press: April 2, 201 Published online: June 9, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Leishmaniasis is an old disease, hard to diagnose and even harder to treat. Limited treatment is available. Early treatment of leishmaniasis is critical to achieve cure, prevent psychological and social distress, and prevent transmission of disease. Untreated Leishmaniasis - cutaneous leishmaniasis, mucocutaneous leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis - results in disfiguring scars and high rates of morbidity and mortality in highly endemic regions of the world. Cure rates with available therapeutics are limited due to cost, therapeutic toxicity and the growing rate of resistance. There is an emergent need for development of new therapeutic options with improved tolerability, improved healing process minimizing scarring, and improved efficacy amongst all Leishmania spp.
