Nanotechnology applied to the treatment of malaria

Abstract

Despite the fact that we live in an era of advanced technology and innovation, infectious diseases, like malaria, continue to be one of the greatest health challenges worldwide. The main drawbacks of conventional malaria chemotherapy are the development of multiple drug resistance and the non-specific targeting to intracellular parasites, resulting in high dose requirements and subsequent intolerable toxicity. Nanosized carriers have been receiving special attention with the aim of minimizing the side effects of drug therapy, such as poor bioavailability and the selectivity of drugs. Several nanosized delivery systems have already proved their effectiveness in animal models for the treatment and prophylaxis of malaria. A number of strategies to deliver antimalarials using nanocarriers and the mechanisms that facilitate their targeting to Plasmodium spp.-infected cells are discussed in this review. Taking into account the peculiarities of malaria parasites, the focus is placed particularly on lipid-based (e.g., liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles and nano and microemulsions) and polymer-based nanocarriers (nanocapsules and nanospheres). This review emphasizes the main requirements for developing new nanotechnology-based carriers as a promising choice in malaria treatment, especially in the case of severe cerebral malaria.

Development of artemether and lumefantrine co-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers: physicochemical characterization and in vivo antimalarial activity

“…Even though decrease in parasitemia was observed in artemether alone and lumefantrine alone treated group, both the monotherapy treatment option failed to completely cure the mice from malaria infection. In artemether-loaded NLC-treated group, the parasitemia was $31.9 ± 13% on day 19, and all mice died before 28 d. In lumefantrine-loaded NLC-treated groups, on the 19th d, parasitemia was 22 ± 15% leading to death of five mice in a group within 28 d, and only single mice survived up to 28 d. Similar type of enhanced antimalarial activity was observed in earlier studies after encapsulating either artemether or lumefantrine in various carrier systems like NLCs, emulsions, liposome's (Joshi et al, 2008;Santos-Magalhães & Mosqueira, 2010;Sosnik & Amiji, 2010). In contrary, mice treated with the artemether and lumefantrine combination either in NLCs or simple oil suspension, treated animals have shown significant decrease in parasitemia on day 19, and !50% mice survived beyond 28 d. The increased antiparasitic activity may be due to the presence of two drugs, which have shown similar increased therapeutic efficiency when used in combination in earlier clinical trials (van Vugt et al, 2000).…”

“…These situations warrant the application of novel drug delivery approaches, which have shown success in the past in overcoming the pharmacokinetic mismatches such as controlled release, bioavailability, stability, etc. to other drug molecules, which are in use to treat similar parasitic infections in general and malaria in particular (Date et al, 2007;Santos-Magalhães & Mosqueira, 2010;Aditya et al, 2013b). Thus, the aim of this research is to fabricate injectable (intraperitoneal; i.p.)…”

In Silico Screening of Antimalarial From Indonesian Medicinal Plants Database to Plasmepsin Target

“…Trimyristin is used as a nanoparticle lipid, which is combined with the curcuminoidin malaria treatment [30]. Triglycerides also have roles in malaria treatment as oil-phase transporters of antimalarial, for example, Self-microemulsifying Drug Delivery Systems that alter into a microemulsion after passing through the oral route [31].…”

Bridging the Knowledge of Different Worlds to Understand the Big Picture of Cancer Nanomedicines

“…In recent years, the advances in nanotechnology have offered unprecedent opportunities to advance the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. [2][3][4][5][6][7] The application of nanotechnology in cancer therapy, herein referred as cancer nanomedicines, have received wide spread attention due to the unique physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles with the ability to deliver different therapeutics (e.g., chemotherapeutics and biologics), altering their pharmacokinetic profiles, augmenting their accumulation in the tumors and reducing their toxicity profiles. [8][9][10][11] Nanomedicines aim to improve the balance between therapeutic efficacy and systemic toxicity of conventional chemotherapeutic agents, which lack of specificity, thereby enhancing the therapeutic index of the anticancer drugs.…”