Therapeutic Potential of Nanoparticulate System for Treatment of Protozoan Infection

Protozoan parasites cause serious human and zoonotic infections, including life-threatening diseases such as malaria, African and American trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis. According to World health organization evaluation, these diseases are no more common in the developed world, but together they threaten about 40% of the world population. Mortality and morbidity are elevated in developing countries, and lack of vaccines makes chemotherapy the only option. However, available antiparasitic drugs are hampered by more or less marked toxic side effects and by the emergence of drug resistance. Among all protozoan diseases, Leishmaniasis is prevalent and is one of the most neglected tropical diseases in terms of drug discovery and development. Recent improvements have been accomplished by combination of nanoparticle mediated therapy. The use of nanoparticulate system for the delivery of therapeutic agents is receiving considerable attention for medical and pharmaceutical applications. The establishment of new approaches related to nanoparticle technology allowed the identification of new molecular targets that in some cases are shared by different parasites. In this article, we summarize the nanotechnology based current development in the leishmaniasis disease which can cross host or parasite natural barriers and, by selectively delivering new or already in use drugs to the target site, minimize