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Background & objectives: Amphotericin B, Allopurinol, Glucantime and Beta-Glucan are the main drugs currently used for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis. In present study, we evaluated the effect of medical leeches on BALB/c mice models infected with Leishmania parasites. Methods: To create animal models of leishmaniasis, BALB/c mice were inoculated with the standard Leishmania major strain MRHO / IR / 75 / ER. Treatment was performed through blood sampling with leeches. We used medical leech (Hirudo medicinalis) species. This leech is a European medicinal leech, one of several species known used as medicinal leech. Twenty-two mice infected with Leishmania major were used for the tests. The studied mice were divided into two groups which were named with letters L and D. The duration of blood sampling was 25 min for initial treatment, 20 min for the 2nd blood sampling and 15 min for the third times and onwards. Meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime) is a pentavalent antimony (SbV) that is recommended by the World Health Organization as a golden standard treatment for all kinds of leishmaniasis, but many side effects are still reported. Criteria for anti-leishmania assessment of leech were including: leech saliva has an anti-leishmania effect by acting on the purin pathway. Leech saliva prevents growth and multiplication of Leishmania by a mechanism of action similar to Glucantim (breaking ATP). Results: The duration of leech treatment in BALB/c mice infected with L. major parasites was about 6-8 weeks. Out of the 22 leishmaniasis mice models that underwent treatment, 13 survived until the end of the treatment duration. The recovery rate was about 56%; lesions improved in five out of the 13 surviving mice models. Paired t-test showed a significant difference between the mean wound size at the beginning of treatment and the 8th week of treatment (PV |