Abstract
Malaria represents one of the most common infectious diseases which becoming an impellent public health problem worldwide. Antimalarial classical medications include quinine-based drugs, like chloroquine, and artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin, a molecule found in the plant Artemisia annua. Such therapeutics are very effective but show heavy side effects like drug resistance. In this study, “green” silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been prepared from two Artemisia species (A. abrotanum and A. arborescens), traditionally used in folk medicine as a remedy for different conditions, and their potential antimalarial efficacy have been assessed. AgNPs have been characterized by UV-Vis, dynamic light scattering and zeta potential, FTIR, XRD, TEM and EDX. The structural characterization has demonstrated the spheroidal shape of nanoparticles and dimensions under 50 nm, useful for biomedical studies. Zeta potential analysis have shown the stability and dispersion of green AgNPs in aqueous medium without aggregation. AgNPs hemocompatibility and antimalarial activity have been studied in Plasmodium falciparum cultures in in vitro experiments. The antiplasmodial effect has been assessed using increasing doses of AgNPs (0.6 to 7.5 μg/mL) on parasitized red blood cells (pRBCs). Obtained data showed that the hemocompatibility of AgNPs is related to their synthetic route and depends on the administered dose. A. abrotanum-AgNPs (1) have shown the lowest percentage of hemolytic activity on pRBCs, underlining their hemocompatibility. These results are in accordance with the lower levels of parasitemia observed after A. abrotanum-AgNPs (1) treatment respect to A. arborescens-AgNPs (2), and AgNPs (3) derived from a classical chemical synthesis. Moreover, after 24 and 48 hours of A. abrotanum-AgNPs (1) treatment, the parasite growth was locked in the ring stage, evidencing the effect of these nanoparticles to hinder the maturation of P. falciparum. The anti-malarial activity of A. abrotanum-AgNPs (1) on pRBCs was demonstrated to be higher than that of A. arborescens-AgNPs (2).
Highlights
Malaria represents one of the most diffused human diseases caused by the mosquito bite, which is able to generate infection by introducing different species of Plasmodium into the host [1]
Data results indicate that the peak observed in the range 400–450 nm was increased in A. abrotanum-AgNPs (1) and A. arborescens-AgNPs (2) respect to “classical” AgNPs (3), suggesting a spheroidal shape for these nanoparticles with a size below 50 nm [48] (Fig 2)
The present work was performed as a pilot study in order to evaluate Artemisia sp. derived silver nanoparticles potential antimalarial efficacy in parasitized human red blood cell and to understand their efficacy against P. falciparum as a new nanotool against malaria
Summary
Malaria represents one of the most diffused human diseases caused by the mosquito bite, which is able to generate infection by introducing different species of Plasmodium into the host [1]. By considering the current drugs accessible for the prevention and treatment of this disease, it seems that, despite the effectiveness of available treatments, the main threat connected to malaria is the emergence of drug resistance [3, 4]. In this context, nanotechnology could represent a possible future solution against malaria drug resistance by introducing the control of drug release at the nanoscale or building active nanoparticles to be used against the parasite. Malaria can be one of the targets of these new strategic weapons
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