Dynamics of parasite clearance in cutaneous leishmaniasis patients treated with miltefosine

Abstract

Parasite loads were quantified in repeated skin biopsies from lesions of 2 patients with Old-World cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) caused by Leishmania major and L. infantum during and after treatment with miltefosine. Miltefosine induced a rapid therapeutic effect on both infections with an initial decline of parasites of ~1 log/week for the L. major infection. These observations illustrate the usability of quantifying parasite loads in skin lesions as a pharmacodynamic measure and quantitative descriptor of drug effect for CL supporting clinical assessment. © 2011 Dorlo et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.