In vitro activity of the clinical pulmonary surfactant Surfacen？ against Leishmania amazonensis

surfacen？ is an exogenous natural lung surfactant, composed by phospholipids and hydrophobic proteins, which is applied successfully in newborn respiratory distress syndrome. in this paper, in vitro activity of surfacen？ against leishmania amazonensis is described. the product showed activity against the amastigote form found in peritoneal macrophages from balb/c mice, with an ic50 value of 17.9 ± 3.0 μg/ml; while no toxic effect on host cell was observed up to 200 μg/ml. this is the first report about the antileishmanial activity of surfacen？.