Research paperBrazilian propolis promotes immunomodulation on human cells from American Tegumentar Leishmaniasis patients and healthy donors infected with L. braziliensis

•Leishmaniasis patients showed reduction in NO levels when compared to healthy controls.•Treatment with propolis did not change the nitric oxide levels on patients PBMC.•Propolis on patients cells increased the IL-4 and decreased the IL-10 levels.•Propolis on Leishmania-infected PBMC reduced the IL-10 and induced a Th17 response.

American Tegumentar Leishmaniasis (ATL) is an infectious disease caused by Leishmania parasites with ineffective treatment. The properties of propolis have been studied in different experimental studies, however, few works have investigated the effects of propolis on human-derived peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in leishmaniasis models. Thus, we investigate the immunomodulatory effects of propolis treatment on PBMC from ATL patients and on PBMC from healthy donors infected with Leishmania braziliensis. Our data demonstrate that propolis pretreatment shows immunomodulatory effects on both healthy donors and ATL patients adherent cells, increasing IL-4 and IL-17 and decreasing IL-10, in either the presence or absence of the L. braziliensis infection, demonstrating that propolis contributes with the decrease of the inflammation and could also contribute with parasite control.