Combination of topical liposomal amphotericin B and Glucantime in comparison with glucantime alone for the treatment of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) caused by Leishmania tropica: study protocol for a randomized, controlled trial

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) treatment is a challenging issue, although numerous modalities have been introduced as candidate treatment for CL yet only antimonial agents are commonly used to treat CL, a different form of amphotericin B is used to treat visceral form of leishmaniasis but the efficacy against CL is not high. There are a few reliable clinical trials on CL, the main reason is the nature of the disease which required a well design protocol to evaluate the efficacy of any candidate treatment against CL. In this study, a protocol was developed and used to evaluate a topical formulation of a nano-liposomal form of amphotericin B in addition to glucantime to treat CL caused by L. tropica. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is a phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of topical nano-liposomal amphotericin B (SinaAmpholeish 0.4%) in combination with intralesional injections of meglumine antimoniate in the treatment of ACL caused by L. tropica. Overall, 130 patients, aged 12-60 years, with a diagnosis of ACL caused by L. tropica are recruited and treated according to the protocol. RESULTS: A total of 130 patients with CL lesion will be recruited and doubleblind randomly treated with received intralesional injections of Glucantime weekly or Glucantime plus SinaAmpholeish for 4 weeks. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that the protocol works well and the treatment was tolerated by both groups of patients.