Publications

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

JTD Keywords: Adjuvant system, Antimalarial activities, Antimalarial agent, Antimalarial drug, Antimalarial drugs, Antimalarials, Artemisinin resistance, Causes of death, Child, Controlled drug delivery, Diseases, Drug delivery system, Drug delivery systems, Drug interactions, Drug side-effects, Drug-delivery, Experimental modelling, Heparan-sulfate, Human, Humans, In-vitro, Malaria, Malaria vaccine, Mannosylated liposomes, Medical nanotechnology, Models, theoretical, Nanocarriers, Nanomedicine, Nanotechnology, Parasite-, Parasitics, Plasmodium, Plasmodium-falciparum malaria, Red-blood-cells, Targeted delivery, Targeted drug delivery, Theoretical model, Therapeutic strategy

A novel family of 4-aminoacridine derivatives was obtained by linking this heteroaromatic core to different trans-cinnamic acids. The 4-(N-cinnamoylbutyl)aminoacridines obtained exhibited in vitro activity in the low- or sub-micromolar range against (i) hepatic stages of Plasmodium berghei, (ii) erythrocytic forms of Plasmodium falciparum, and (iii) early and mature gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum. The most active compound, having a meta-fluorocinnamoyl group linked to the acridine core, was 20- and 120-fold more potent, respectively, against the hepatic and gametocyte stages of Plasmodium infection than the reference drug, primaquine. Moreover, no cytotoxicity towards mammalian and red blood cells at the concentrations tested was observed for any of the compounds under investigation. These novel conjugates represent promising leads for the development of new multi-target antiplasmodials.Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.

JTD Keywords: agents, analogs, antimalarial, artemisinin, blood-stage, cinnamic acid, gametocyte, hybrid, liver-stage, malaria, multi-target, plasmodium-falciparum, primaquine, quinacrine, resistance, Acridine, Antimalarial, Blood-stage, Cinnamic acid, Cinnamic acid-derivatives, Gametocyte, Hybrid, Liver-stage, Multi-target

Malaria is an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitos, whose control is hampered by drug resistance evolution in the causing agent, protist parasites of the genus Plasmodium, as well as by the resistance of the mosquito to insecticides. New approaches to fight this disease are, therefore, needed. Research into targeted drug delivery is expanding as this strategy increases treatment efficacies. Alternatively, targeting the parasite in humans, here we use single-chain polymer nanoparticles (SCNPs) to target the parasite at the ookinete stage, which is one of the stages in the mosquito. This nanocarrier system provides uniquely sized and monodispersed particles of 5-20 nm, via thiol-Michael addition. The conjugation of succinic anhydride to the SCNP surface provides negative surface charges that have been shown to increase the targeting ability of SCNPs to Plasmodium berghei ookinetes. The biodistribution of SCNPs in mosquitos was studied, showing the presence of SCNPs in mosquito midguts. The presented results demonstrate the potential of anionic SCNPs for the targeting of malaria parasites in mosquitos and may lead to progress in the fight against malaria.

JTD Keywords: antimalarial, atovaquone, carriers, delivery, drug-conjugate, heparin, intramolecular crosslinking, plasmodium berghei, therapy, thiol-michael addition, transmission, Atovaquone, Drug-conjugate, Intramolecular crosslinking, Plasmodium berghei, Plasmodium-falciparum, Single chain polymer nanoparticles, Thiol-michael addition

Background By 2016, signs of emergence of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to artemisinin and partner drugs were detected in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Recently, the independent evolution of artemisinin resistance has also been reported in Africa and South America. This alarming scenario calls for the urgent development of new antimalarials with novel modes of action. We investigated the interference with protein aggregation, which is potentially toxic for the cell and occurs abundantly in all Plasmodium stages, as a hitherto unexplored drug target in the pathogen. Results Attempts to exacerbate the P. falciparum proteome's propensity to aggregation by delivering endogenous aggregative peptides to in vitro cultures of this parasite did not significantly affect their growth. In contrast, protein aggregation inhibitors clearly reduced the pathogen's viability. One such compound, the bis(styrylpyridinium) salt YAT2150, exhibited potent antiplasmodial activity with an in vitro IC50 of 90 nM for chloroquine- and artemisinin-resistant lines, arresting asexual blood parasites at the trophozoite stage, as well as interfering with the development of both sexual and hepatic forms of Plasmodium. At its IC50, this compound is a powerful inhibitor of the aggregation of the model amyloid beta peptide fragment 1-40, and it reduces the amount of aggregated proteins in P. falciparum cultures, suggesting that the underlying antimalarial mechanism consists in a generalized impairment of proteostasis in the pathogen. YAT2150 has an easy, rapid, and inexpensive synthesis, and because it fluoresces when it accumulates in its main localization in the Plasmodium cytosol, it is a theranostic agent. Conclusions Inhibiting protein aggregation in Plasmodium significantly reduces the parasite's viability in vitro. Since YAT2150 belongs to a novel structural class of antiplasmodials with a mode of action that potentially targets multiple gene products, rapid evolution of resistance to this drug is unlikely to occur, making it a promising compound for the post-artemisinin era.

JTD Keywords: amyloid pan-inhibitors, antimalarial drugs, malaria, plasmodium falciparum, protein aggregation, Amyloid formation, Amyloid pan-inhibitors, Antimalarial drugs, Colocalization, Cytosolic delivery, Derivatives, Disease, Drug, In-vitro, Malaria, Mechanism, Plasmodium falciparum, Polyglutamine, Protein aggregation, Yat2150

The evolution of resistance by the malaria parasite to artemisinin, the key component of the combination therapy strategies that are at the core of current antimalarial treatments, calls for the urgent identification of new fast-acting antimalarials. The apicoplast organelle is a preferred target of antimalarial drugs because it contains biochemical processes absent from the human host. Fosmidomycin is the only drug in clinical trials targeting the apicoplast, where it inhibits the methyl erythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway. Here, we characterized the antiplasmodial activity of domiphen bromide (DB), another MEP pathway inhibitor with a rapid mode of action that arrests the in vitro growth of Plasmodium falciparum at the early trophozoite stage. Metabolomic analysis of the MEP pathway and Krebs cycle intermediates in 20 mu M DB-treated parasites suggested a rapid activation of glycolysis with a concomitant decrease in mitochondrial activity, consistent with a rapid killing of the pathogen. These results present DB as a model compound for the development of new, potentially interesting drugs for future antimalarial combination therapies.

JTD Keywords: antibiotics, antimalarial drugs, domiphen bromide, malaria, plasmodium falciparum, Antibiotics, Antimalarial drugs, Antimalarial-drug, Artemisinin, Combination therapies, Domiphen bromide, Intraerythrocytic stages, Isoprenoid biosynthesis, Malaria, Methyl erythritol phosphate pathway, Nonmevalonate pathway, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium-falciparum apicoplast, Red-blood-cells, Targeted delivery

Malaria eradication has for decades been on the global health agenda, but the causative agents of the disease, several species of the protist parasite Plasmodium, have evolved mechanisms to evade vaccine-induced immunity and to rapidly acquire resistance against all drugs entering clinical use. Because classical antimalarial approaches have consistently failed, new strategies must be explored. One of these is nanomedicine, the application of manipulation and fabrication technology in the range of molecular dimensions between 1 and 100 nm, to the development of new medical solutions. Here we review the current state of the art in malaria diagnosis, prevention, and therapy and how nanotechnology is already having an incipient impact in improving them. In the second half of this review, the next generation of antimalarial drugs currently in the clinical pipeline is presented, with a definition of these drugs’ target product profiles and an assessment of the potential role of nanotechnology in their development. Opinions extracted from interviews with experts in the fields of nanomedicine, clinical malaria, and the economic landscape of the disease are included to offer a wider scope of the current requirements to win the fight against malaria and of how nanoscience can contribute to achieve them. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

JTD Keywords: antibody-bearing liposomes, antimalarial drugs, combination therapies, drug-delivery strategies, malaria diagnosis, malaria prophylaxis, malaria therapy, nanocarriers, nanomedicine, nanoparticles, nanotechnology, plasmodium, plasmodium-falciparum, red-blood-cells, targeted delivery, targeted drug delivery, vitro antimalarial activity, Antimalarial drugs, Isothermal amplification lamp, Malaria diagnosis, Malaria prophylaxis, Malaria therapy, Nanocarriers, Nanomedicine, Nanotechnology, Plasmodium, Targeted drug delivery

© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH Multi-stage drugs have been prioritized in antimalarial drug discovery, as targeting more than one process in the Plasmodium life cycle is likely to increase efficiency, while decreasing the chances of emergence of resistance by the parasite. Herein, we disclose two novel acridine-based families of compounds that combine the structural features of primaquine and chloroquine. Compounds prepared and studied thus far retained the in vitro activity displayed by the parent drugs against the erythrocytic stages of chloroquine-sensitive and -resistant Plasmodium falciparum strains, and against the hepatic stages of Plasmodium berghei, hence acting as dual-stage antiplasmodial hits.

JTD Keywords: acridines, antimalarial activity, blood-stage, liver-stage, malaria, plasmodium, Acridines, Antimalarial activity, Blood-stage, Liver-stage, Malaria, Plasmodium, Synthesis

Among several factors behind drug resistance evolution in malaria is the challenge of administering overall doses that are not toxic for the patient but that, locally, are sufficiently high to rapidly kill the parasites. Thus, a crucial antimalarial strategy is the development of drug delivery systems capable of targeting antimalarial compounds to Plasmodium with high specificity. In the present study, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been evaluated as a drug delivery system for the treatment of malaria. EVs derived from naive red blood cells (RBCs) and from Plasmodium falciparum-infected RBCs (pRBCs) were isolated by ultrafiltration followed by size exclusion chromatography. Lipidomic characterization showed that there were no significant qualitative differences between the lipidomic profiles of pRBC-derived EVs (pRBC-EVs) and RBC-derived EVs (RBC-EVs). Both EVs were taken up by RBCs and pRBCs, although pRBC-EVs were more efficiently internalized than RBC-EVs, which suggested their potential use as drug delivery vehicles for these cells. When loaded into pRBC-EVs, the antimalarial drugs atovaquone and tafenoquine inhibited in vitro P. falciparum growth more efficiently than their free drug counterparts, indicating that pRBC-EVs can potentially increase the efficacy of several small hydrophobic drugs used for the treatment of malaria.

JTD Keywords: Antimalarial drugs, Drug delivery, Extracellular vesicles, Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum

Innovative antimalarial strategies are urgently needed given the alarming evolution of resistance to every single drug developed against Plasmodium parasites. The sulfated glycosaminoglycan heparin has been delivered in membrane feeding assays together with Plasmodium berghei-infected blood to Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes. The transition between ookinete and oocyst pathogen stages in the mosquito has been studied in vivo through oocyst counting in dissected insect midguts, whereas ookinete interactions with heparin have been followed ex vivo by flow cytometry. Heparin interferes with the parasite’s ookinete–oocyst transition by binding ookinetes, but it does not affect fertilization. Hypersulfated heparin is a more efficient blocker of ookinete development than native heparin, significantly reducing the number of oocysts per midgut when offered to mosquitoes at 5 µg/mL in membrane feeding assays. Direct delivery of heparin to mosquitoes might represent a new antimalarial strategy of rapid implementation, since it would not require clinical trials for its immediate deployment.

JTD Keywords: Anopheles, Antimalarial drugs, Heparin, Malaria, Mosquito, Ookinete, Plasmodium, Transmission blocking

Recently, we disclosed primaquine cell penetrating peptide conjugates that were more potent than parent primaquine against liver stage Plasmodium parasites and non-toxic to hepatocytes. The same strategy was now applied to the blood-stage antimalarial chloroquine, using a wide set of peptides, including TP10, a cell penetrating peptide with intrinsic antiplasmodial activity. Chloroquine-TP10 conjugates displaying higher antiplasmodial activity than the parent TP10 peptide were identified, at the cost of an increased hemolytic activity, which was further confirmed for their primaquine analogues. Fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry suggest that these drug-peptide conjugates strongly bind, and likely destroy, erythrocyte membranes. Taken together, the results herein reported put forward that coupling antimalarial aminoquinolines to cell penetrating peptides delivers hemolytic conjugates. Hence, despite their widely reported advantages as carriers for many different types of cargo, from small drugs to biomacromolecules, cell penetrating peptides seem unsuitable for safe intracellular delivery of antimalarial aminoquinolines due to hemolysis issues. This highlights the relevance of paying attention to hemolytic effects of cell penetrating peptide-drug conjugates.

JTD Keywords: Antimalarial, Cell penetrating peptide, Chloroquine, Erythrocyte fluorescence, Flow cytometry, Hemolysis, Microscopy, Plasmodium, Primaquine, Red blood cell

Design, synthesis, structure-activity relationship, cytotoxicity studies, in silico drug-likeness, genotoxicity screening, and in vivo studies of new 1-aryl-3-substituted propanol derivatives led to the identification of nine compounds with promising in vitro (55, 56, 61, 64, 66, and 70–73) and in vivo (66 and 72) antimalarial profiles against Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium berghei. Compounds 55, 56, 61, 64, 66 and 70–73 exhibited potent antiplasmodial activity against chloroquine-resistant strain FCR-3 (IC50s < 0.28 μM), and compounds 55, 56, 64, 70, 71, and 72 showed potent biological activity in chloroquine-sensitive and multidrug-resistant strains (IC50s < 0.7 μM for 3D7, D6, FCR-3 and C235). All of these compounds share appropriate drug-likeness profiles and adequate selectivity indexes (77 < SI < 184) as well as lack genotoxicity. In vivo efficacy tests in a mouse model showed compounds 66 and 72 to be promising candidates as they exhibited significant parasitemia reductions of 96.4% and 80.4%, respectively. Additional studies such as liver stage and sporogony inhibition, target exploration of heat shock protein 90 of P. falciparum, targeted delivery by immunoliposomes, and enantiomer characterization were performed and strongly reinforce the hypothesis of 1-aryl-3-substituted propanol derivatives as promising antimalarial compounds.

JTD Keywords: Antiplasmodial, Antimalarial, Arylamino alcohol, Multi-stage activity, Hsp90, Enantiomer separation

Current strategies for the mass administration of antimalarial drugs demand oral formulations to target the asexual Plasmodium stages in the peripheral bloodstream, whereas recommendations for future interventions stress the importance of also targeting the transmission stages of the parasite as it passes between humans and mosquitoes. Orally administered polyamidoamine (PAA) nanoparticles conjugated to chloroquine reached the blood circulation and cured Plasmodium yoelii-infected mice, slightly improving the activity of the free drug and inducing in the animals immunity against malaria. Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry analysis of affinity chromatography-purified PAA ligands suggested a high adhesiveness of PAAs to Plasmodium falciparum proteins, which might be the mechanism responsible for the preferential binding of PAAs to Plasmodium-infected erythrocytes vs. non-infected red blood cells. The weak antimalarial activity of some PAAs was found to operate through inhibition of parasite invasion, whereas the observed polymer intake by macrophages indicated a potential of PAAs for the treatment of certain coinfections such as Plasmodium and Leishmania. When fluorescein-labeled PAAs were fed to females of the malaria mosquito vectors Anopheles atroparvus and Anopheles gambiae, persistent fluorescence was observed in the midgut and in other insect’s tissues. These results present PAAs as a versatile platform for the encapsulation of orally administered antimalarial drugs and for direct administration of antimalarials to mosquitoes, targeting mosquito stages of Plasmodium.

JTD Keywords: Anopheles, Antimalarial drugs, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Nanomedicine, Nanotechnology, Plasmodium, Polyamidoamines, Polymers, Targeted drug delivery

Heparin is one of the oldest drugs, which nevertheless remains in widespread clinical use as an inhibitor of blood coagulation. The history of its identification a century ago unfolded amid one of the most fascinating scientific controversies turning around the distribution of credit for its discovery. The composition, purification and structure-function relationship of this naturally occurring glycosaminoglycan regarding its classical role as anticoagulant will be dealt with before proceeding to discuss its therapeutic potential in, among other, inflammatory and infectious disease, cancer treatment, cystic fibrosis and Alzheimer's disease. The first bibliographic reference hit using the words 'nanomedicine' and 'heparin' is as recent as 2008. Since then, nanomedical applications of heparin have experienced an exponential growth that will be discussed in detail, with particular emphasis on its antimalarial activity. Some of the most intriguing potential applications of heparin nanomedicines will be exposed, such as those contemplating the delivery of drugs to the mosquito stages of malaria parasites.

JTD Keywords: Anopheles, Antimalarial drugs, Heparin, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Nanomedicine, Nanotechnology, Plasmodium, Targeted drug delivery

JTD Keywords: Anopheles, Antimalarial drugs, Combination therapies, Heparin, Malaria, Mosquitoes, Nanomedicine, Nanotechnology, Plasmodium, Poly(amidoamine)s, Polymers, Targeted drug delivery

JTD Keywords: antimalarial, heparin, magic bullet, malaria, nanomedicine, nanotechnology, nanovector, Plasmodium, polymers, targeted drug delivery, chloroquine, immunoliposome, liposome, nanoparticle, solid lipid nanoparticle, Anopheles, antimalarial activity, drug delivery system, drug efficacy, erythrocyte, human, IC50, malaria, malaria control, nanoencapsulation, nonhuman, pathophysiology, Plasmodium, Review

It can be foreseen that in a future scenario of malaria eradication, a varied armamentarium will be required, including strategies for the targeted administration of antimalarial compounds. The development of nanovectors capable of encapsulating drugs and of delivering them to Plasmodium-infected cells with high specificity and efficacy and at an affordable cost is of particular interest. With this objective, dendritic derivatives based on 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic acid (bis-MPA) and Pluronic® polymers have been herein explored. Four different dendritic derivatives have been tested for their capacity to encapsulate the antimalarial drugs chloroquine (CQ) and primaquine (PQ), their specific targeting to Plasmodium-infected red blood cells (pRBCs), and their antimalarial activity in vitro against the human pathogen Plasmodium falciparum and in vivo against the rodent malaria species Plasmodium yoelii. The results obtained have allowed the identification of two dendritic derivatives exhibiting specific targeting to pRBCs vs. non-infected RBCs, which reduce the in vitro IC50 of CQ and PQ by ca. 3- and 4-fold down to 4.0 nm and 1.1 μm, respectively. This work on the application of dendritic derivatives to antimalarial targeted drug delivery opens the way for the use of this new type of chemicals in future malaria eradication programs.

JTD Keywords: Antimalarial targeted drug delivery, Dendrimers, Malaria, Nanomedicine, Plasmodium, Polymeric nanoparticles

Heparin had been demonstrated to have antimalarial activity and specific binding affinity for Plasmodium-infected red blood cells (pRBCs) vs. non-infected erythrocytes. Here we have explored if both properties could be joined into a drug delivery strategy where heparin would have a dual role as antimalarial and as a targeting element of drug-loaded nanoparticles. Confocal fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy data show that after 30. min of being added to living pRBCs fluorescein-labeled heparin colocalizes with the intracellular parasites. Heparin electrostatically adsorbed onto positively charged liposomes containing the cationic lipid 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane and loaded with the antimalarial drug primaquine was capable of increasing three-fold the activity of encapsulated drug in Plasmodium falciparum cultures. At concentrations below those inducing anticoagulation of mouse blood in vivo, parasiticidal activity was found to be the additive result of the separate activities of free heparin as antimalarial and of liposome-bound heparin as targeting element for encapsulated primaquine. From the Clinical Editor: Malaria remains an enormous global public health concern. In this study, a novel functionalized heparin formulation used as drug delivery agent for primaquine was demonstrated to result in threefold increased drug activity in cell cultures, and in a murine model it was able to provide these benefits in concentrations below what would be required for anticoagulation. Further studies are needed determine if this approach is applicable in the human disease as well.

JTD Keywords: Heparin, Liposomes, Malaria, Plasmodium, Targeted drug delivery, Heparin, Malaria, Plasmodium, Red blood cell, Targeted drug delivery, Liposomes, 1,2 dioleoyl 3 trimethylammoniopropane, fluorescein, heparin, liposome, nanoparticle, primaquine, adsorption, animal experiment, anticoagulation, antimalarial activity, Article, binding affinity, confocal microscopy, controlled study, drug targeting, encapsulation, erythrocyte, female, fluorescence microscopy, human, human cell, in vivo study, liposomal delivery, mouse, nonhuman, Plasmodium falciparum, transmission electron microscopy

JTD Keywords: Antimalarial, Erythrocyte, Glycosaminoglycan, Heparin, Magic bullet, Malaria, Nanomedicine, Nanovector, Plasmodium, Targeted drug delivery

JTD Keywords: Antimalarial, Erythrocyte, Glycosaminoglycan, Heparin, Magic bullet, Malaria, Nanomedicine, Nanovector, Plasmodium, Targeted drug delivery

Current administration methods of antimalarial drugs deliver the free compound in the blood stream, where it can be unspecifically taken up by all cells, and not only by Plasmodium-infected red blood cells (pRBCs). Nanosized carriers have been receiving special attention with the aim of minimizing the side effects of malaria therapy by increasing drug bioavailability and selectivity. Liposome encapsulation has been assayed for the delivery of compounds against murine malaria, but there is a lack of cellular studies on the performance of targeted liposomes in specific cell recognition and on the efficacy of cargo delivery, and very little data on liposome-driven antimalarial drug targeting to human-infecting parasites. We have used fluorescence microscopy to assess in vitro the efficiency of liposomal nanocarriers for the targeted delivery of their contents to pRBCs. 200-nm liposomes loaded with quantum dots were covalently functionalized with oriented, specific half-antibodies against P. falciparum late form-infected pRBCs. In less than 90 min, liposomes dock to pRBC plasma membranes and release their cargo to the cell. 100.0% of late form-containing pRBCs and 0.0% of non-infected RBCs in P. falciparum cultures are recognized and permeated by the content of targeted immunoliposomes. Liposomes not functionalized with antibodies are also specifically directed to pRBCs, although with less affinity than immunoliposomes. In preliminary assays, the antimalarial drug chloroquine at a concentration of 2 nM, >= 10 times below its IC50 in solution, cleared 26.7 ± 1.8% of pRBCs when delivered inside targeted immunoliposomes.

JTD Keywords: Antimalarial chemotherapy, Chloroquine, Half-antibodies, Immunoliposomes, Malaria, Nanomedicine

Paul Ehrlich's dream of a 'magic bullet' that would specifically destroy invading microbes is now a major aspect of clinical medicine. However, a century later, the implementation of this medical holy grail continues being a challenge in three main fronts: identifying the right molecular or cellular targets for a particular disease, having a drug that is effective against it, and finding a strategy for the efficient delivery of sufficient amounts of the drug in an active state exclusively to the selected targets. In a previous work, we engineered an immunoliposomal nanovector for the targeted delivery of its contents exclusively to Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cells [pRBCs]. In preliminary assays, the antimalarial drug chloroquine showed improved efficacy when delivered inside immunoliposomes targeted with the pRBC-specific monoclonal antibody BM1234. Because difficulties in determining the exact concentration of the drug due to its low amounts prevented an accurate estimation of the nanovector performance, here, we have developed an HPLC-based method for the precise determination of the concentrations in the liposomal preparations of chloroquine and of a second antimalarial drug, fosmidomycin. The results obtained indicate that immunoliposome encapsulation of chloroquine and fosmidomycin improves by tenfold the efficacy of antimalarial drugs. The targeting antibody used binds preferentially to pRBCs containing late maturation stages of the parasite. In accordance with this observation, the best performing immunoliposomes are those added to Plasmodium cultures having a larger number of late form-containing pRBCs. An average of five antibody molecules per liposome significantly improves in cell cultures the performance of immunoliposomes over non-functionalized liposomes as drug delivery vessels. Increasing the number of antibodies on the liposome surface correspondingly increases performance, with a reduction of 50% parasitemia achieved with immunoliposomes encapsulating 4 nM chloroquine and bearing an estimated 250 BM1234 units. The nanovector prototype described here can be a valuable platform amenable to modification and improvement with the objective of designing a nanostructure adequate to enter the preclinical pipeline as a new antimalarial therapy.

JTD Keywords: Plasmodium falciparum, Antimalarial drug, Nanovector, Immuno-liposomes