Overcoming multi-resistant leishmania treatment by nanoencapsulation of potent antimicrobials

Leishmaniasis corresponds to a group of neglected tropical diseases caused by flagellated protozoa belonging to the Leishmania genus. This widely spread illness is found in over 90 countries in the tropic and sub-tropic regions and also in southern Europe. As parasites exclusively infect the highly phagocytic cells (macrophages), this aspect can be exploited for targeted delivery making use of nanoparticles. Drug-loaded nanoparticles have been proposed to improve the bioavailability of classical drugs commonly in use as standard leishmania therapy, to overcome parasitic resistance and side effects and improve the treatment efficacy. Infected macrophages are expected to recognize drug-loaded nanoparticles which undergo phagocytosis releasing the drug inside macrophages. This approach can further be exploited for the development of nanovaccines. This paper provides an overview of the current disease status worldwide, its classical pharmacological treatments and how these can be improved by the use of featured nanoparticles specific tailored for such a complex disease. Several types of nanoparticles have been proposed while others have already reached clinical trials. This article is protected by copyright.This research was funded by Banco do Nordeste (grant FUNDECI/2016.0015), Coordenação Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES) and Fundação de Ámparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Sergipe (FAPITEC) (PROCESSO: 88887.159533/2017–2100 extração, encapsulação e caracterização de bioativos para o interesse biotecnologico), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 301964/2019-0 Chamada 06/2019, and Chamada CNPq no. 01/2019) and the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) project UIDB/04469/2020 (strategic fund).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio