Utilization of Composites and Nanocomposites Based on Natural Rubber and Ceramic Nanoparticles as Control Agents for Leishmania braziliensis

Abstract

Please use Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this book chapter for free. Just open this same document with Adobe Reader. If you do not have it, you can download it here. You can freely access the chapter at the Web Viewer here. differentiated properties can be transferred to other materials by the insertion of the nanomaterials in a matrix of a different nature and nanometric scale not generating a nanocomposite material[1, 2]. In general, the choice of polymer as a matrix or continuous phase is preferable since most have appreciable thermal and mechanical properties. Other properties must also be taken into account, such as hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance, chemical stability and biocompatibility. The nanometric component, generally inorganic, known as the dispersed phase, can provide a higher mechanical, thermal stability and also biological properties [3]. Multidisciplinary researches involving nanoscience, nanotechnology, materials science and engineering, biotechnology and health sciences have gained great strength in recent decades, aiming to increase the number of tools for addressing problems [4]. Each day new materials and methodologies are tested in fighting diseases such as cancer and diseases neglected by the pharmaceutical industry, for example, malaria, leishmaniasis and Chagas' disease. As a result of this innovation, nanocomposites and composites based in natural rubber filled with ceramic particle and nanoparticles can be used in biological applications, aiming at development of devices such as intelligent bandages or agents of control and reduction of parasitic colonies [5]. 1.2. Leishmania braziliensis Leishmaniasis is a endemic and parasitic infection caused by the Leishmania genus protozoa. Approximately 1.5 million people were affected by cutaneous leishmaniasis, which reaches 88 countries and has compulsory notification in only 30 of them. Presents itself throughout the Americas and Brazil is the country that has the highest prevalence of cases. Leishmaniasis is a typically tropical disease from Trypanosomatidae family, affecting the skin (cutaneous leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania braziliensis protozoans) or viscera (visceral leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania donovani protozoans), transmitted by the bite of the vector, a phlebotomine sand fly popularly known as "straw mosquito", which utilizes both animals and humans as host [6, 7]. Protozoans of Leishmania genus are unicellular, eukaryotic, heterotrophic, with asexual reproduction by binary fission, and feed via uptake of non-self-generated food. Within the human body, Leishmania protozoans feed of proteins present intracellularly or in blood plasma, and reproduce only within macrophages or similar cells of the immune system[6, 7]. 1.3. Ceramic materials Ceramic materials (in general, oxides, carbides or nitrides) are inorganic, non-metallic substances consisting of metallic and non-metallic elements connected together by covalent and/or ionic bonds. This class of materials displays a set of distinguished physical and chemical properties s...