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Keywords:
coconut water; Leishmaniasis; Leishmania amazonensis; nanomedicine; SPIONs
Abstract
The main goal of this work was to evaluate the therapeutic potential of green superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs ) produced with coconut water for treating cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania amazonensis. Optical and electron microscopy techniques were used to evaluate the effects on cell proliferation, infectivity percentage, and ultrastructure. SPIONs were internalized by both parasite stages, randomly distributed in the cytosol and located mainly in membrane-bound compartments. The selectivity index for intracellular amastigotes was more than 240 times higher compared to current drugs used to treat the disease. The synthesized SPIONs showed promising activity against Leishmania and can be considered a strong candidate for a new therapeutic approach for treating leishmaniases.
Introduction
Leishmaniasis is one of the most important neglected diseases of chronic nature and remains a serious global health problem. A worrying increase has been observed in the number of leishmaniasis cases worldwide in recent decades. It is estimated that about 600 million people live in risk areas, and 0.6-1.2 million new leishmaniasis cases appear annually [1]. The treatment for this disease involves using pentavalent antimonials. miltefosine. amphotericin B. paromomycin, or pentamidine. However, side effects of these drugs and an increased number of drug-resistant parasites have been reported [2-5]. These facts demonstrate the need to develop new treatments or alternatives that are safer, more effective, and more accessible to patients.
In this context, nanomedicine is one of the most promising branches of contemporary medicine, currently concentrating a large part of the scientific effort on the search for new treatments for different diseases. Its main objective is to develop therapies with higher specificity, effectiveness, and safety, as well as less toxicity [6]. One interesting class of nanomaterials in medicine are superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs). SPIONs exhibit theranostic properties, that is. they can be used simultaneously for diagnosis and therapy. Thus. SPIONs have emerged as one of the best options for the development of new therapeutic methods. SPIONs offer several features such as good biocompatibility, degradability under moderate acid conditions, the ability for magnetic manipulation, the possibility of being used in magnetic resonance imaging, and the ability to generate controlled heat non-invasively when exposed to an alternating magnetic field [7.8]. In 2019. our group...