Role of magnetic Field in the Healing of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Lesions in Mice

Abstract

Leishmaniasisis an important tropical cutaneous disease that is endemic in the Middle East, including Iran. There is no consensus on the appropriate therapeutic method, dose, and duration for this disease. The pentavalent antimonial compounds are the first-line treatments of leishmaniasis. With regard to the resistance of this disease against drugs and its treatment failure in some patients, the present study was conducted to investigate the role of alternating magnetic field (AMF) in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis lesionsin mice. To this end, 45 male Balb/c mice with the age of 3-4 weeks and weight of 18-20 g were purchased from the Pasteur Institute, Tehran, Iran, to be investigated. The mice were infected with <em>Leishmania </em>promastigote (2×10⁶) injected in the upper end of the tail.After 3 weeks, the animals were screened for developing lesions. Finally, 15 mice were selected and randomly divided into three equal groups of positive control (treated with the standard drug), negative control (without treatment), and experimental (subjected to AMF at a frequency of 50 kHz for 30 min on a daily basis for 4 weeks). The subjects were followed up for 4 weeks, and the size of their lesions was measured weekly. The data were analyzed by repeated measures test in SPSS software (version 20) at a p-value of < 0.05. There was no significant difference between the experimental and positive control groups (P>0.05). However, the negative control group showed a significant difference with the positive control and experimental groups (P=0.0001). As the findings indicated, AMF was seemingly able to decrease the size of lesions to the same extent as the standard drug. Consequently, AMF could be suggested as a noninvasive and complementary tool against cutaneous leishmaniasis. However, it is required to perform more studies to address different aspects of this domain.