Magnetic nanoparticles are highly toxic to chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum, dengue virus (DEN-2), and their mosquito vectors

Abstract

A main challenge in parasitology is the development of reliable tools to prevent or treat mosquito-borne diseases. We investigated the toxicity of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) produced by Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense (strain MSR-1) on chloroquine-resistant (CQ-r) and sensitive (CQ-s) Plasmodium falciparum, dengue virus (DEN-2), and two of their main vectors, Anopheles stephensi and Aedes aegypti, respectively. MNP were studied by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. They were toxic to larvae and pupae of An. stephensi, LC ranged from 2.563 ppm (1st instar larva) to 6.430 ppm (pupa), and Ae. aegypti, LC ranged from 3.231 ppm (1st instar larva) to 7.545 ppm (pupa). MNP IC on P. falciparum were 83.32 μg ml (CQ-s) and 87.47 μg ml (CQ-r). However, the in vivo efficacy of MNP on Plasmodium berghei was low if compared to CQ-based treatments. Moderate cytotoxicity was detected on Vero cells post-treatment with MNP doses lower than 4 μg ml. MNP evaluated at 2-8 μg ml inhibited DEN-2 replication inhibiting the expression of the envelope (E) protein. In conclusion, our findings represent the first report about the use of MNP in medical and veterinary entomology, proposing them as suitable materials to develop reliable tools to combat mosquito-borne diseases.

Design, Synthesis and Characterization of Biogenic Chloroquine Silver Nanoparticles as Potential Anticancer Agent against Neuroblastoma Cells

“…Chloroquine nanoparticles were reported for anticancer activity with inhibition of autophagy [20,21] antidengue virus activities [22,23]. We have successfully synthesized silver nanoparticles using chloroquine as a reducing agent and the prepared nanoparticles were confirmed by the characterization technique UV-visible, FTIR, SEM and XRD.…”

Bionetworks, system biology, and superorganisms

“…In addition to plants of several botanical families, natural raw materials of different origins were used to synthetize nanoparticles utilizing marine organisms, such as seagrass ( Mahyoub et al, 2017 ), and spongeweed ( Murugan et al, 2016a , Murugan et al, 2016b , Murugan et al, 2016c , Murugan et al, 2016e , Murugan et al, 2016f , Murugan et al, 2016g , Murugan et al, 2016h ), and also fern, chitosan, earthworm ( Jaganathan et al, 2016 ), and others, and their activity against vectors was tested successfully.…”

Magnetotactic bacteria used to generate electricity based on Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction

“…Most recently, MTB were reported as a possible treatment for malaria (Murugan et al . ). The use of magnetosomes as a potential antitumour drug carrier has also been successfully applied (Sun et al .…”