Targeted Nanoparticles Can Overcome Drug Resistance in Trypanosomes: A High-Tech Approach to Combat Sleeping Sickness and Potentially Other Neglected Diseases

June 29, 2015

(Nanotechnology Now) – Sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis, is caused by trypanosome parasites transmitted by tsetse flies and threatens millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is considered fatal if untreated, but as it affects mostly poor people in low-income countries, treatment options are limited. The existing drugs have serious side effects, and the parasites are developing resistance. A study published on June 25th in PLOS Pathogens reports a new way to circumvent drug resistance and lower the curative dose by delivering existing drugs directly into the parasite, a high-tech approach with potential applications to other infectious diseases.