EFFICACY OF THE HERBICIDE TRIFLURALIN AGAINST 4 P-GLYCOPROTEIN-EXPRESSING STRAINS OF LEISHMANIA

Drug resistance has emerged as a major obstacle to chemotherapy for ma ny infectious diseases. Trifluralin, an antimicrotubule herbicide, is a new experimental drug for treatment of leishmaniasis. Here, we found that it was effective against two strains of Leishmania that express the multidrug-resistant genes Idmdr1 and ImpgpA and two strains that e xpress proteins that are immunologically cross-reactive with mammalian P glycoproteins. These results suggest that trifluralin is not subjec t to counteractions of these multidrug resistance mechanisms of leishm ania species.