Naloxone Diminishes the Virulence and Modifies the Cellular Immune Responses of BALB/c Mice Infected with Leishmania major

Purpose Leishmania major -infected BALB/c mice display strong susceptibility to the infection due to the induction of Th2 response. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of naloxone on virulence of L. major in BALB/c mice and the ensued cellular immune response. Methods The effects of injection of a single dose of naloxone in the footpad of L. major -infected BALB/c mice were investigated by evaluating the lesion sizes, the parasite burden, cell proliferation, secreted cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10 and IL-12) and their genes expressions due to naloxone treatment while the untreated mice were used as a control. Results Significantly lower lesion sizes and less parasite burden were measured in the treated mice. Significantly decreased productions of IFN-γ, IL-12, IL-4, and IL-10 were also observed in the treated mice at week 4 post-infection while the production IL-10 remained significantly hindered till 8 weeks post-infection. Conclusion Our data indicated that although the treatment of L. major -infected BALB/c mice with a single dose of naloxone was unable to improve the cellular immune response, it led to lower virulence, confirmed by significantly reduced lesions and parasite load.