Nanomedicine strategies for addressing major needs in neglected tropical diseases

摘要

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are endemic to tropical and subtropical regions in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia, representing a global public health problem. Despite affecting more than one billion people worldwide, the treatments for these diseases are highly toxic or even nonexistent, and it is usually necessary to treat the symptoms individually, which increases the burden to the healthcare systems. The development of nanomedicines against NTDs could provide effective solutions for managing the side effects and toxicities by minimizing the drug levels in healthy tissues while increasing the levels of drugs at the site of action. Thus, through the rational design of nano-scaled carriers incorporating drugs against neglected diseases, it is possible to promote selectivity, to minimize non-specific cellular toxicity and to reduce dosage, thereby, increasing the efficiency of the treatments. Here, we present the basic concepts, the main barriers for drug delivery in NTDs and the nanomedicine approaches in development to overcome them. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.