Figure 1.

Comparison of activity of oral amphotericin B attached to functionalized carbon nanotubes with established treatments in Leishmania donovani–infected hamsters. Animals were intracardially infected and treated after 30 days as per the described protocol. The parasitic burden was estimated by counting the number of amastigotes per 500 splenic nuclei. The percentage inhibition was derived from the ratio between untreated and treated splenic parasite burdens. Each bar represents the mean result of 2 independent experiments. The unpaired t test shows nonsignificant differences between AmBisome and f-CNT-AmB (15 mg/kg body weight). Data are expressed as mean ± SD.

Abbreviations: AmB, amphotericin B; f-CNT, functionalized carbon nanotubes; IP, intraperitoneal; OL, oral.