The assessment of apoptosis, toxicity effects and anti-leishmanial study of Chitosan/CdO core-shell nanoparticles, eco-friendly synthesis and evaluation

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that can be transmitted to individuals by a species of the Leishmania flagellated protozoan. Due to problems such as toxicity, high cost, long duration of treatment, increased drug resistance, painful injections, and side effects, leishmaniasis is considered as an important epidemic in people with systemic deficits. Therefore, in this study, new core–shell nanostructures were introduced as anti-leishmanial drugs for the first time. The expression of IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-4, and IL-12 genes were evaluated by real-time PCR. Investigations revealed that CdO/Chitosan core shell nanostructures decreased the proliferation of promastigotes (p < 0.0001). The number of promastigotes were reduced in the presence of different concentrations of the nanostructures. The average value of IC50 for promastigotes was about 0.6 µg/mL. The concentration of the drug that prevented the growth of 50% of macrophages for core shell nanostructures was 1.256 μg/mL. The level of apoptosis in leishmania promastigotes in the presence of nanodots at the concentrations of 1, 0.5, and 0.25 µg/mL was 56%, 31%, and 23%, respectively. Furthermore, according to the results, it can be concluded that the level of gene expression pertaining to Th1 was significantly up-regulated (p < 0.001). This study showed that the core–shell nanodots of chitosan/cadmium oxide inhibit the proliferation of promastigotes and increase the apoptosis of leishmania promastigotes.