When nanomedicines meet tropical diseases

• Eder Lilia Romero,
• Katrien Van Bocxlaer and
• Fabio Rocha Formiga

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 830–832, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.69

• ; Chagas disease; leishmaniasis; nanomedicine; nanotechnology; neglected tropical diseases; schistosomiasis; In May 2021, the World Health Assembly from the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to officially recognize January 30th as the World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day. This initiative was done

• disfigure people. These diseases can also affect the ability of a person to stay in school, earn a living, or even be accepted by the community due to disease-related stigma. The WHO has updated the list of NTDs to include leishmaniasis, malaria, sleeping sickness, filariasis, snakebite envenoming, and

• approach against leishmaniasis [4]. Dourado and collaborators, who showed the therapeutic potential of curcumin-loaded nanocarriers, have also focused their review on these vector-borne NTDs [5]. With an emphasis on the treatment of schistosomiasis using nanoparticles, Carvalho and colleagues provided a

Nanomedicines against Chagas disease: a critical review

• Maria Jose Morilla,
• Kajal Ghosal and
• Eder Lilia Romero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 333–349, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.30

• -specifically concentrated in areas of infection. Intravenously administered nanomedicines can deliver minute drug amounts and mediate shorter, less toxic, and more effective treatments than conventional medicines. The effectivity of low liposomal amphotericin B doses used to treat lethal visceral leishmaniasis

• CD are less accessible than in leishmaniasis, where only macrophages are infected. The first report on BNZ-based nanomedicines intravenously administered to rats and mice dates back to 2004 [67] with disappointing results. An intravenous bolus of 0.7% w/w BNZ/lipid multilamellar liposomes

• AmBisome®, with significantly lower nephrotoxic effects compared to amphotericin B deoxycholate and launched in 1990 [106][107]. Remarkably, despite being used to combat visceral leishmaniasis [62], AmBisome® was not made to treat a neglected disease, but to fight systemic mycoses resulting from

Curcumin-loaded nanostructured systems for treatment of leishmaniasis: a review

• Douglas Dourado,
• Thayse Silva Medeiros,
• Éverton do Nascimento Alencar,
• Edijane Matos Sales and
• Fábio Rocha Formiga

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 37–50, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.4

• (UPE), 50100-130, Recife, PE, Brazil 10.3762/bjnano.15.4 Abstract Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease that has affected more than 350 million people worldwide and can manifest itself in three different forms: cutaneous, mucocutaneous, or visceral. Furthermore, the current treatment options

• have drawbacks which compromise efficacy and patient compliance. To face this global health concern, new alternatives for the treatment of leishmaniasis have been explored. Curcumin, a polyphenol obtained from the rhizome of turmeric, exhibits leishmanicidal activity against different species of

• nanocarriers intended for the treatment of leishmaniasis. Keywords: antiparasitic; Curcuma longa; curcuminoids; leishmaniasis; nanocarriers; neglected tropical diseases; Introduction Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) comprise a group of 20 diseases that are caused, in most cases, by viruses, fungi, bacteria

Nanotechnological approaches in the treatment of schistosomiasis: an overview

• Lucas Carvalho,
• Michelle Sarcinelli and
• Beatriz Patrício

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 13–25, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.2

• have also been found in our search. Miltefosine, for example, is a drug created to treat cutaneous metastasis from mammary carcinomas [68]. After that, it was also approved to treat leishmaniasis [69][70], and in 2011, Eissa et al. [71] verified that the drug has activity against different forms of S

Green SPIONs as a novel highly selective treatment for leishmaniasis: an in vitro study against Leishmania amazonensis intracellular amastigotes

• Brunno R. F. Verçoza,
• Robson R. Bernardo,
• Luiz Augusto S. de Oliveira and
• Juliany C. F. Rodrigues

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 893–903, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.73

• The main goal of this work was to evaluate the therapeutic potential of green superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) produced with coconut water for treating cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania amazonensis. Optical and electron microscopy techniques were used to evaluate the

• current drugs used to treat the disease. The synthesized SPIONs showed promising activity against Leishmania and can be considered a strong candidate for a new therapeutic approach for treating leishmaniases. Keywords: coconut water; Leishmaniasis; Leishmania amazonensis; nanomedicine; SPIONs

• ; Introduction Leishmaniasis is one of the most important neglected diseases of chronic nature and remains a serious global health problem. A worrying increase has been observed in the number of leishmaniasis cases worldwide in recent decades. It is estimated that about 600 million people live in risk areas, and

Supramolecular assembly of pentamidine and polymeric cyclodextrin bimetallic core–shell nanoarchitectures

• Alexandru-Milentie Hada,
• Nina Burduja,
• Marco Abbate,
• Claudio Stagno,
• Guy Caljon,
• Louis Maes,
• Nicola Micale,
• Massimiliano Cordaro,
• Angela Scala,
• Antonino Mazzaglia and
• Anna Piperno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1361–1369, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.112

• ) with pentamidine (Pent), an antimicrobial agent used against leishmaniasis [16], to investigate the antimicrobial activity of novel nanosystems (i.e., nanoGSP; Figure 1). Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites transmitted to humans and animals by the bite of tiny (2–3 mm

• long) infected female insect vectors of the Phlebotomine subfamily (sandflies). It is an endemic disease in tropical and subtropical regions as well as in Southern Europe. According to the current WHO data, 50.000–90.000 new cases of visceral leishmaniasis [17] (the most severe form of this disease

• noble metal NPs produced by reduction of gold or silver ions with natural extracts have been proposed for the treatment of leishmaniasis, acting against both promastigote and amastigote forms of L. donovani [22][23]. Nanoantimicrobials originated from the combination of NPs with conventional

A review on nanostructured silver as a basic ingredient in medicine: physicochemical parameters and characterization

• Gabriel M. Misirli,
• Kishore Sridharan and
• Shirley M. P. Abrantes

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 440–461, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.36

• used in the future against the increase of multidrug-resistant pathogenic strains. In addition, AgNPs can also be used to combat neglected diseases such as dengue, leishmaniasis, malaria, schistosomiasis, and trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) among other applications [5][19][24]. The unprecedented

• toxicity and improved efficacy [86]. In vivo and in vitro studies have demonstrated the efficacy of AgNPs in treating neglected diseases, such as dengue [87][88], leishmaniasis [89][90][91][92], malaria [93][94][95], schistosomiasis [96][97], and trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) [98][99]. Mechanism of