Abstract:
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Malaria is arguably one of the main medical concerns worldwide
because of the numbers of people affected, the severity of the
disease and the complexity of the life cycle of its causative
agent, the protist Plasmodium spp. With the advent of
nanoscience, renewed hopes have appeared of finally obtaining
the long sought-after magic bullet against malaria in the form
of a nanovector for the targeted delivery of antimalarial
compounds exclusively to Plasmodium-infected cells, thus
increasing drug efficacy and minimizing the induction of
resistance to newly developed therapeutic agents.
Polyamidoamine-derived nanovectors combine into a single
chemical structure drug encapsulating capacity, antimalarial
activity, low unspecific toxicity, specific targeting to
Plasmodium, optimal in vivo activity and affordable synthesis
cost. After having shown their efficacy in targeting drugs to
intraerythrocytic parasites, now polyamidoamines face the
challenge of spearheading a new generation of nanocarriers
aiming at the malaria parasite stages in the mosquito vector. |