Antileishmanial structure-activity relationships of synthetic phospholipids: in vitro and in vivo activities of selected derivatives.

Antileishmanial activities of 91 synthetic phospholipids against Leishmania donovani were evaluated in vitro and cytotoxicity assessed against two mammalian cell lines. Promising compounds were tested further in vivo. In vitro structure-activity relationships showed a positive contribution of head groups bearing ring systems (N-methylpiperidino and N-methylmorpholino) to antileishmanial activity.