Therapeutic success and failure in using miltefosine to treat dogs naturally infected with Leishmania infantum.

In urban environments, domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) are a major reservoir for the parasite Leishmania infantum. Miltefosine has been used as the standard treatment for canine visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil. However, therapeutic failures have been reported.

Increased Leishmania infantum resistance to miltefosine and amphotericin B after treatment of a dog with miltefosine and allopurinol.

Background: Leishmania infantum is the most important etiological agent of visceral leishmaniasis in the Americas and Mediterranean region, and the dog is the main host. Miltefosine was authorized to treat canine leishmaniasis (CanL) in Brazil in 2017, but there is a persistent fear of the emergence of parasites resistant not only to this drug but, through cross-resistance mechanisms, also to meglumine antimoniate and amphotericin B. Additionally, the literature shows that acquisition of resistance is followed by increased parasite fitness, with higher rates of proliferation, infectivity and metacyclogenesis, which are drivers of parasite virulence.

Respiratory mechanics and lung tissue remodeling in a hepatopulmonary syndrome rat model.

Intrapulmonary vasodilation is a hallmark of the hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS). However, its effects on respiratory mechanical properties and lung morphology are unknown. To determine these effects, 28 rats were randomly divided to control and experimental HPS groups (eHPS).