Topical paromomycin for New World cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Background Paromomycin-based topical treatments were shown to be effective in curing cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) lesions caused by Leishmania major in Tunisia. Cure rates of an index lesion were approximately 80%. As a follow on, we conducted a similar Phase 3 trial in Panama to demonstrate the eff...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biomédica
Main Authors: Néstor Sosa, Juan Miguel Pascale, Ana I Jiménez, Jeanne A Norwood, Mara Kreishman-Detrick, Peter J Weina, Kendra Lawrence, William F McCarthy, Ryan C Adams, Charles Scott, Janet Ransom, Douglas Tang, Max Grogl
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007253
https://doaj.org/article/ca0684b07e454f37bb57db2c769761f0
Description
Summary:Background Paromomycin-based topical treatments were shown to be effective in curing cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) lesions caused by Leishmania major in Tunisia. Cure rates of an index lesion were approximately 80%. As a follow on, we conducted a similar Phase 3 trial in Panama to demonstrate the efficacy of these treatments against New World species. The primary objective was to determine if a combination topical cream (paromomycin-gentamicin) resulted in statistically superior final clinical cure rates of an index lesion compared to a paromomycin alone topical cream for the treatment of CL, primarily caused by Leishmania panamensis. Methods We conducted a randomized, double blind, Phase 3 trial of topical creams for the treatment of CL caused by Leishmania spp. Three hundred ninety nine patients with one to ten CL lesions were treated by topical application once daily for 20 days. The primary efficacy endpoint was percentage of subjects with clinical cure of an index lesion confirmed to contain Leishmania with no relapse. Results The clinical cure of the index lesion for paromomycin-gentamicin was 79% (95% CI; 72 to 84) and for paromomycin alone was 78% (95% CI; 74 to 87) (p = 0.84). The most common adverse events considered related to study cream application were mild to moderate dermatitis, pain, and pruritus. Conclusions Superiority of paromomycin-gentamicin was not demonstrated. However, the approximately 80% cure rates for both topical creams were similar to those demonstrated in Tunisia and previously reported with parenteral antimonials.