Inhibitory effect of electroporation and silver nanoprticles on the growth of leishmania major promastigotes: Influence of pulse duration

Cutaneous Leshmaniasis (CL) is a parasitic disease which is caused by different flagellated protozoan species of leishmania. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of electroporation on leishmania major promastigotes using different pulse durations in the presence of silver nanoparticles (SNP).

Promastigotes of L. major were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% FCS at 27°C. The promastigote suspension with a concentration of 40´106 parasite/ml was prepared. It was incubated in the presence of SNP of 6 nm in two various concentrations. By an ECM 830 electroporator device 8 electrical pulses were applied in four duration widths of 50، 100، 150 and 200 microseconds with an electrical field magnitude of 2500 V/cm and a frequency of 1 Hz. Then 24 hrs later the percentage of promatigote survival was measured in each sample by the MTS method in order to determine the IC50 of SNPs and also the effect of certain electrical pulses in the presence and absence of SNPs.

It seems that in the presence of SNPs at 24 micromolar concentration، the contribution of electrical pulses with a duration of 150 microseconds and an electrical field magnitude of 2500 V/cm was successful in reducing the proliferation rate of promastigotes (p<0. 004).

Electrical pulses in the presence of SNPs can lead to a significant decrease in parasite survival rate.