Current challenges and nanotechnology-based pharmaceutical strategies for the treatment and control of malaria

Nanotechnology based drug delivery systems for malaria

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites transmitted through Anopheles mosquitoes, remains a global health burden, particularly in tropical regions. The most lethal species, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, pose significant threats to human health. Despite various treatment strategies, malaria continues to claim lives, with Africa being disproportionately affected. This review explores the advancements in drug delivery systems for malaria treatment, focusing on polymeric and lipid-based nanoparticles. Traditional antimalarial drugs, while effective, face challenges such as toxicity and poor bio-distribution. To overcome these issues, nanocarrier systems have been developed, aiming to enhance drug efficacy, control release, and minimize side effects. Polymeric nanocapsules, dendrimers, micelles, liposomes, lipid nanoparticles, niosomes, and exosomes loaded with antimalarial drugs are examined, providing a comprehensive overview of recent developments in nanotechnology for malaria treatment. The current state of antimalarial treatment, including combination therapies and prophylactic drugs, is discussed, with a focus on the World Health Organization's recommendations. The importance of nanocarriers in malaria management is underscored, highlighting their role in targeted drug delivery, controlled release, and improved pharmacological properties. This review bridges the gap in the literature, consolidating the latest advancements in nanocarrier systems for malaria treatment and offering insights into potential future developments in the field.

Network Medicine: A Potential Approach for Virtual Drug Screening

Traditional drug screening methods typically focus on a single protein target and exhibit limited efficiency due to the multifactorial nature of most diseases, which result from disturbances within complex networks of protein-protein interactions rather than single gene abnormalities. Addressing this limitation requires a comprehensive drug screening strategy. Network medicine is rooted in systems biology and provides a comprehensive framework for understanding disease mechanisms, prevention, and therapeutic innovations. This approach not only explores the associations between various diseases but also quantifies the relationships between disease genes and drug targets within interactome networks, thus facilitating the prediction of drug-disease relationships and enabling the screening of therapeutic drugs for specific complex diseases. An increasing body of research supports the efficiency and utility of network-based strategies in drug screening. This review highlights the transformative potential of network medicine in virtual therapeutic screening for complex diseases, offering novel insights and a robust foundation for future drug discovery endeavors.

Nanotechnology and malaria: Evaluation of efficacy and toxicity of green nanoparticles and future perspectives

Malaria is a global health problem that causes 1.5-2.7 million deaths worldwide each year. Resistance to antimalarial drugs in malaria parasites and to insecticides in vectors is one of the most serious issues in the fight against this disease. Moreover, the lack of an effective vaccine against malaria is still a major problem. Recent developments in nanotechnology have resulted in new prospects for the fight against malaria, especially by obtaining metal nanoparticles (NPs) that are less toxic, highly biocompatible, environmentally friendly, and less expensive. Numerous studies have been conducted on the synthesis of green NPs using plants and microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, algae, actinomycetes, and viruses). To our knowledge, there is no literature review that compares toxicities and antimalarial effects of some of the existing metallic nanoparticles, revealing their advantages and disadvantages. Hence, the purpose of this work is to assess metal NPs obtained through various green synthesis processes, to display the worth of future malaria research and determine future strategies. Results revealed that there are very few studies on green NPs covering all stages of malaria parasites. Additionally, green metal nanoparticles have yet to be studied for their possible toxic effects on infected as well as healthy erythrocytes. Morever, the toxicities of green metal NPs obtained from various sources differed according to concentration, size, shape, synthesis method, and surface charge, indicating the necessity of optimizing the methods to be used in future studies. It was concluded that studies on the toxic properties of green nanoparticles would be very important for the future.

Nanotherapeutics against malaria: A decade of advancements in experimental models

Malaria, caused by different species of protists of the genus Plasmodium, remains among the most common causes of death due to parasitic diseases worldwide, mainly for children aged under 5. One of the main obstacles to malaria eradication is the speed with which the pathogen evolves resistance to the drug schemes developed against it. For this reason, it remains urgent to find innovative therapeutic strategies offering sufficient specificity against the parasite to minimize resistance evolution and drug side effects. In this context, nanotechnology-based approaches are now being explored for their use as antimalarial drug delivery platforms due to the wide range of advantages and tuneable properties that they offer. However, major challenges remain to be addressed to provide a cost-efficient and targeted therapeutic strategy contributing to malaria eradication. The present work contains a systematic review of nanotechnology-based antimalarial drug delivery systems generated during the last 10 years. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Infectious Disease.

Immunotherapy and immunochemotherapy in combating visceral leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a vector-borne disease, is caused by an obligate intramacrophage, kinetoplastid protozoan parasite of the genus Leishmania. Globally, VL is construed of diversity and complexity concerned with high fatality in tropics, subtropics, and Mediterranean regions with ~50,000-90,000 new cases annually. Factors such as the unavailability of licensed vaccine(s), insubstantial measures to control vectors, and unrestrained surge of drug-resistant parasites and HIV-VL co-infections lead to difficulty in VL treatment and control. Furthermore, VL treatment, which encompasses several problems including limited efficacy, emanation of drug-resistant parasites, exorbitant therapy, and exigency of hospitalization until the completion of treatment, further exacerbates disease severity. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of safe and efficacious therapies to control and eliminate this devastating disease. In such a scenario, biotherapy/immunotherapy against VL can become an alternative strategy with limited side effects and no or nominal chance of drug resistance. An extensive understanding of pathogenesis and immunological events that ensue during VL infection is vital for the development of immunotherapeutic strategies against VL. Immunotherapy alone or in combination with standard anti-leishmanial chemotherapeutic agents (immunochemotherapy) has shown better therapeutic outcomes in preclinical studies. This review extensively addresses VL treatment with an emphasis on immunotherapy or immunochemotherapeutic strategies to improve therapeutic outcomes as an alternative to conventional chemotherapy.

Exploring the potential of antimalarial nanocarriers as a novel therapeutic approach

Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease that affects millions of people worldwide, especially in developing countries. Despite advances in conventional therapies, drug resistance in malaria parasites has become a significant concern. Hence, there is a need for a new therapeutic approach. To combat the disease effectively means eliminating vectors and discovering potent treatments. The nanotechnology research efforts in nanomedicine show promise by exploring the potential use of nanomaterials that can surmount these limitations occurring with antimalarial drugs, which include multidrug resistance or lack of specificity when targeting parasites directly. Utilizing nanomaterials would possess unique advantages over conventional chemotherapy systems by increasing the efficacy levels while reducing side effects significantly by delivering medications precisely within the diseased area. It also provides cheap yet safe measures against Malaria infections worldwide-ultimately improving treatment efficiency holistically without reinventing new methods therapeutically. This review is an effort to provide an overview of the various stages of malaria parasites, pathogenesis, and conventional therapies, as well as the treatment gap existing with available formulations. It explores different types of nanocarriers, such as liposomes, ethosomal cataplasm, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, polymeric nanocarriers, and metallic nanoparticles, which are frequently employed to boost the efficiency of antimalarial drugs to overcome the challenges and develop effective and safe therapies. The study also highlights the improved pharmacokinetics, enhanced drug bioavailability, and reduced toxicity associated with nanocarriers, making them a promising therapeutic approach for treating malaria.

Opportunity in nanomedicine to counter the challenges of current drug delivery approaches used for the treatment of malaria: a review

Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease transmitted by the infected female Anopheles mosquito. The development of drug tolerance and challenges related to the drugs' pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic parameters limits the antimalarial therapeutics response. Currently, nanotechnology-based drug delivery system provides an integrative platform for antimalarial therapy by improving the drug physicochemical properties, combating multidrug resistance, and lowering antimalarial drug-related toxicity. In addition, surface engineered nanocarrier systems offer a variety of alternatives for site-specific/targeted delivery of antimalarial therapeutics, anticipating better clinical outcomes at low drug concentrations and low toxicity profiles, as well as reducing the likelihood of the emergence of drug resistance. So, constructing nano carrier-based approaches for drug delivery has been considered the foremost strategy to combat malaria. This review focuses on the numerous nanotherapeutic strategies utilised to treat malaria as well as the benefits of nanotechnology as a potentially effective therapeutic.

Biosynthesized selenium nanoparticles to rescue coccidiosis-mediated oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation in the jejunum of mice

One of the most crucial approaches for treating human diseases, particularly parasite infections, is nanomedicine. One of the most significant protozoan diseases that impact farm and domestic animals is coccidiosis. While, amprolium is one of the traditional anticoccidial medication, the advent of drug-resistant strains of Eimeria necessitates the development of novel treatments. The goal of the current investigation was to determine whether biosynthesized selenium nanoparticles (Bio-SeNPs) using Azadirachta indica leaves extract might treat mice with Eimeria papillata infection in the jejunal tissue. Five groups of seven mice each were used, as follows: Group 1: Non-infected-non-treated (negative control). Group 2: Non-infected treated group with Bio-SeNPs (0.5 mg/kg of body weight). Groups 3-5 were orally inoculated with 1×10³ sporulated oocysts of E. papillata. Group 3: Infected-non-treated (positive control). Group 4: Infected and treated group with Bio-SeNPs (0.5 mg/kg). Group 5: Infected and treated group with the Amprolium. Groups 4 and 5 daily received oral administration (for 5 days) of Bio-SeNPs and anticoccidial medication, respectively, after infection. Bio-SeNPs caused a considerable reduction in oocyst output in mice feces (97.21%). This was also accompanied by a significant reduction in the number of developmental parasitic stages in the jejunal tissues. Glutathione reduced (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were dramatically reduced by the Eimeria parasite, whereas, nitric oxide (NO) and malonaldehyde (MDA) levels were markedly elevated. The amount of goblet cells and MUC2 gene expression were used as apoptotic indicators, and both were considerably downregulated by infection. However, infection markedly increased the expression of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) and the apoptotic genes (Caspase-3 and BCL2). Bio-SeNPs were administrated to mice to drastically lower body weight, oxidative stress, and inflammatory and apoptotic indicators in the jejunal tissue. Our research thus showed the involvement of Bio-SeNPs in protecting mice with E. papillata infections against jejunal damage.

Cerebral Malaria and Neuronal Implications of Plasmodium Falciparum Infection: From Mechanisms to Advanced Models

Reorganization of host red blood cells by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum enables their sequestration via attachment to the microvasculature. This artificially increases the dwelling time of the infected red blood cells within inner organs such as the brain, which can lead to cerebral malaria. Cerebral malaria is the deadliest complication patients infected with P. falciparum can experience and still remains a major public health concern despite effective antimalarial therapies. Here, the current understanding of the effect of P. falciparum cytoadherence and their secreted proteins on structural features of the human blood-brain barrier and their involvement in the pathogenesis of cerebral malaria are highlighted. Advanced 2D and 3D in vitro models are further assessed to study this devastating interaction between parasite and host. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms leading to neuronal and cognitive deficits in cerebral malaria will be pivotal in devising new strategies to treat and prevent blood-brain barrier dysfunction and subsequent neurological damage in patients with cerebral malaria.

Review: Liposomes in the prophylaxis and treatment of infectious diseases

Infectious diseases remain as one of the major burdens among health communities as well as in the general public despite the advances in prevention and treatment. Although vaccination and vector eliminations have greatly prevented the transmission of these diseases, the effectiveness of these strategies is no longer guaranteed as new challenges such as drug resistance and toxicity as well as the missing effective therapeutics arise. Hence, the development of new tools to manage these challenges is anticipated, in which nano technology using liposomes as effective nanostructure is highly considered. In this review, we concentrate on the advantages of liposomes in the drug delivery system and the development of vaccine in the treatment of three major infectious diseases; tuberculosis (TB), malaria and HIV.