Tailored Drug Delivery against Leishmaniasis: Unleashing the Potential of Engineered Extracellular Vesicles
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: To Editor, Leishmania, a protozoan parasite responsible for debilitating leishmaniasis disease, has emerged as a global health concern, with an estimated 700 000 to 1 million new cases arising annually.Traditional treatment methods for leishmaniasis face challenges like high cost, drug resistance, and toxicity (1).To address these challenges, the researchers are now exploring alternative therapeutic strategies, with one promising avenue being the utilization of extracellular vesicles (EVs).EVs are emerging as a novel drug delivery system that holds the potential to deliver the elevated drug concentrations directly into the infected host cells, thereby minimizing the off-target side effects and protection against in vivo degradation.Modified EVs have been used as effective delivery vehicles for small-molecule drugs, natural products, short hairpin RNA, short interfering RNA, plasmid DNA, and microRNAs (2).Leishmania EVs (LEVs) are nano-sized particles secreted by the parasites in their extracellular environment, encapsulating a diverse cargo of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, metabolites, and glycoconjugates (3).LEVs have been the subject of thorough studies including attempting to investigate their isolation and characterization, understand their cargo composition, and assess their interaction with host cells.These studies have underscored their robust roles in modulating host immunity, influencing disease progression, and facilitating the exchange of drug resistant genes (4).One key aspect of LEVs is their involvement in immune evasion, since previous studies have demonstrated their immunomodulatory effects.These include the inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines production (e.g., TNF-α) and promotion of anti-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., IL-6 and IL-10) (5,6).LEVs create an environment conducive to their survival through manipulating the host immune
DOI: 10.34172/ijmpes.3153
Author: Aditi Mukherjee
Institution: Harvard University
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4394586362