Notícies
28.07.2014
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El doctor Rafel Prohens, responsable de la Tecnologia de Polimorfisme i Calorimetria dels CCiTUB, ha participat en col·laboració amb altres especialistes a l'article "Application of heparin as a dual agent with antimalarial and liposome targeting activities toward Plasmodium-infected red blood cells" publicat a la revista "Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine". L'abstract és el següent: "Heparin had been demonstrated to have antimalarial activity and specific binding affinity for Plasmodium-infected red blood cells (pRBCs) vs. non-infected erythrocytes. Here we have explored if both properties could be joined into a drug delivery strategy where heparin would have a dual role as antimalarial and as a targeting element of drug-loaded nanoparticles. Confocal fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy data show that after 30 min of being added to living pRBCs fluorescein-labeled heparin colocalizes with the intracellular parasites. Heparin electrostatically adsorbed onto positively charged liposomes containing the cationic lipid 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane and loaded with the antimalarial drug primaquine was capable of increasing three-fold the activity of encapsulated drug in Plasmodium falciparum cultures. At concentrations below those inducing anticoagulation of mouse blood in vivo, parasiticidal activity was found to be the additive result of the separate activities of free heparin as antimalarial and of liposome-bound heparin as targeting element for encapsulated primaquine." L'article complet es troba en aquest enllaç. | |