Polymeric Nanoparticle Based Diagnosis and Nanomedicine for Treatment and Development of Vaccines for Cerebral Malaria: A Review on Recent Advancement

Abstract

Cerebral malaria occurs due to Plasmodium falciparum infection, which causes 228 million infections and 450,000 deaths worldwide every year. African people are mostly affected with nearly 91% cases, of which 86% are pregnant women and infants. India and Brazil are the other two countries severely suffering from malaria endemicity. Commonly used drugs have severe side effects, and unfortunately no suitable vaccine is available in the market today. In this line, this review is focused on polymeric nanomaterials and nanocapsules that can be used for the development of effective diagnostic strategies, nanomedicines, and vaccines in the management of cerebral malaria. Further, this review will help scientists and medical professionals by updating the status on the development stages of polymeric nanoparticle based diagnostics, nanomedicines, and vaccines and strategies to eradicate cerebral malaria. In addition to this, the predominant focus of this review is antimalarial agents based on polymer nanomedicines that are currently in the preclinical and clinical trial stages, and potential developments are suggested as well. This review further will have an important social and commercial impact worldwide for the development of polymeric nanomedicines and strategies for the treatment of cerebral malaria.

Cerebral Malaria and Neuronal Implications ofPlasmodium FalciparumInfection: From Mechanisms to Advanced Models

“…[ 311 ] Polymeric nanomaterials and nanocapsules are another potential CM vaccine alternative, but can also be applied as nanomedicines and in diagnostic approaches. [ 312 ]…”

Self-Assembled Catalytic Nanoreactors from Molecular Brushes by Utilizing Postpolymerization Modification for Catalyst Attachment

“…Polymeric micelles, processing the characteristics of easy to prepare, well dispersed, and structurally tunable, have been widely used in the fields of imaging, diagnosis, drug release, etc. The introduction of homogeneous catalysts into polymer-based micelles can perfectly combine the well-known advantages of homogeneous catalysis, such as high efficiency, with those of the heterogeneous catalysis, such as recyclability.…”

Heparin-Coated Dendronized Hyperbranched Polymers for Antimalarial Targeted Delivery

“…Whereas the results provided by liposomes as nanocapsules and antibodies as targeting elements of antimalarial drug-loaded nanocarriers offered good performance in vitro and in vivo , − their production cost was too high for widespread use in malaria endemic regions. This spurred the development of more affordable technologies, which initially materialized with the development of polymeric nanocarriers as encapsulating structures − and heparin as the targeting molecule. Indeed, according to our own calculations, since heparin is significantly less expensive to obtain than specific (monoclonal) antibodies, heparin-targeted antimalarial nanocarriers were estimated to be about 10 times less expensive than equally performing immunoliposomes.…”