Review of the Current Landscape of the Potential of Nanotechnology for Future Malaria Diagnosis, Treatment, and Vaccination Strategies

Malaria eradication has for decades been on the global health agenda, but the causative agents of the disease, several species of the protist parasite Plasmodium, have evolved mechanisms to evade vaccine-induced immunity and to rapidly acquire resistance against all drugs entering clinical use. Because classical antimalarial approaches have consistently failed, new strategies must be explored. One of these is nanomedicine, the application of manipulation and fabrication technology in the range of molecular dimensions between 1 and 100 nm, to the development of new medical solutions. Here we review the current state of the art in malaria diagnosis, prevention, and therapy and how nanotechnology is already having an incipient impact in improving them. In the second half of this review, the next generation of antimalarial drugs currently in the clinical pipeline is presented, with a definition of these drugs' target product profiles and an assessment of the potential role of nanotechnology in their development. Opinions extracted from interviews with experts in the fields of nanomedicine, clinical malaria, and the economic landscape of the disease are included to offer a wider scope of the current requirements to win the fight against malaria and of how nanoscience can contribute to achieve them.

Automated summary

Malaria eradication has been a longstanding goal on the global health agenda, but the causative agents of the disease have developed mechanisms to evade immunity and drug resistance. Nanomedicine is considered a new strategy in the fight against malaria, and is already making an impact in diagnosis, prevention, and therapy. Next generation antimalarial drugs in development are being assessed for their potential use of nanotechnology.