Parasitic Infection Treatment

Infectious diseases are mainly caused by microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi, and can be transmitted by insect or animal bites, directly or indirectly from one person to another, or through food, plants, soil, or water contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. Parasites are organisms that live on or in host organisms, and their prevention and treatment currently rely on anthelmintics and antiparasitic drugs. Dendrimers are of great interest in many scientific fields because of their unique composition and structure. In the biomedical field, dendrimers can be used to develop antibacterial, antiviral and antiparasitic agents.

Overview of Treatment of Parasitic Infections

Parasitic diseases are important infectious diseases that cause morbidity and mortality in developing countries, killing millions of people each year. Parasites are transmitted from person to person through blood transfusions, organ transplants, needle sharing, and mosquito bites, and are organisms obligated to be in contact with hosts. Currently, treatment of parasites relies on antiparasitic drugs. However, with the heavy use of drugs, substantial drug resistance and severe toxicity have emerged. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new treatment strategies.

Dendrimers as Antiparasitic Agents

The advantages of dendrimers when used for disease treatment include reduced cytotoxicity, increased drug specificity, improved bioavailability, longer half-life, and avoidance of premature drug degradation. The antiparasitic effects of dendrimers are attributed to surface activity and internal penetration. In addition to their therapeutic effects, as a nanomaterial, dendrimers can also be used as delivery vehicles for antiparasitic drugs.

• Dendrimers for Malaria Treatment
  Malaria is caused by a parasite of the genus Plasmodium and is a debilitating and life-threatening disease. Malaria has a huge impact not only on health but also on a country's economy. Current drugs used for malaria treatment include chloroquine, primaquine and artemisinin and its derivatives, but can cause severe toxicity and drug resistance. Therefore, there is a need to develop new delivery systems for the treatment of malaria. Dendrimers can be an excellent delivery system for malaria treatment because of their biocompatibility and biodegradability. Antimalarial drugs delivered via dendrimers can target Plasmodium infected RBCs (pRBCs), show no cytotoxic effects in healthy cells, and have strong antimalarial activity

Confocal fluorescence microscopy study of the targeting of dendritic derivatives to pRBCs vs. RBCs. (Movellan J, et al., 2014)

• Dendrimers for Leishmaniasis Treatment
  Leishmaniasis is caused by parasite Leishmania and is currently treated with drugs such as sodium stibogluconate and meglumine antimoniate, which promote the development of drug resistance and toxicity (cardiotoxicity and pancreatitis). Due to drug resistance, amphotericin B, miltefosine and paromomycin have been used as alternatives to pentavalent antimonial drugs. However, these drugs are severely toxic and expensive. Nanocarriers such as dendrimers can be used to treat leishmaniasis to avoid these limitations because they are biocompatible and can dissolve the drug, thus reducing toxicity. PPI dendrimers targeting Pan-DR binding epitopes and containing mannose have shown improved therapeutic efficacy, while also showing reduced toxicity to human erythrocytes and macrophages.
• Dendrimers for Toxoplasmosis Treatment
  Toxoplasmosis is caused by Toxoplasma gondii, and current therapeutic agents include drugs such as pyrimethamine and sulfadoxine. The problem with the traditional forms of therapy is the drugs fail to pass the membranes of the host cells to reach the bradyzoites of Toxoplasma gondii. As an effective tool for drug delivery, dendrimers can deliver the drugs across the several membranes of tachyzoite and encysted bradyzoite, effectively increasing the efficacy of the drug and its toxicity to the parasite.

How We Can Help

As experts in dendrimers, CD BioSciences is confident in enhancing innovative dendrimer products and high-quality, hassle-free, cost-effective custom services for our customers worldwide. At CD BioSciences, we have an advanced technology platform and extensive experience dedicated to solving almost any problem in your dendrimer research project. If you are interested in our services or have any additional questions, please feel free to contact us.

Reference

1. Movellan J.; et al. Amphiphilic dendritic derivatives as nanocarriers for the targeted delivery of antimalarial drugs. Biomaterials. 2014, 35: 7940-50.