Nano-targeted drug delivery for parasitic infections

Parasitic diseases remain a major public health problem, which affects hundreds of millions of people especially in developing countries. Most of the available therapies for these diseases have either limited efficacy or have the potential to cause lethal side effects at therapeutic doses. Also, few of these drugs are found to be linked with developing parasitic resistance. Effective vaccines are the need for the current situation but high cost and failing to bestow a long-lasting immunity are the leading challenges in vaccine development. It’s, therefore, become crucial to search for new preventive and treatment strategies to control these parasitic diseases. One of such approaches that are emerging as a promising area of research in both prevention and treatment of these diseases are nanotechnology-based-targeted drug delivery systems. These delivery systems prove to be efficient in overcoming major challenges of large-sized drug delivery like poor solubility and bioavailability, in vivo instability, problems regarding target-specific delivery, and potential side effects of drugs. These can penetrate the cellular barrier within host and provides novel mechanisms for targeted delivery with minimal toxicity and enhanced therapeutic effects. Moreover, nano-targeted drug delivery systems also present a better option for repurposing existing medications for targeted drug delivery in this area. In this chapter, we will discuss different nanotechnology based delivery systems, focusing on applications and new research progress for various parasitic diseases (especially helminths and protozoa).