Nanomedicines and nanodiagnostics for parasites, viruses, and bacteria

Event details

Abstract

Infectious diseases caused by parasites, viruses, and bacteria pose an immense burden on global health. The COVID-19 pandemic is a recent reminder of the devasting effects of any new viral disease, especially in the absence of broadly applicable antiviral therapies. Protozoan parasites are equally impactful human pathogens, causing diseases like malaria, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and cryptosporidiosis. We have designed broad-spectrum heparan sulphate mimicking polymer and polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticle systems that function by directly binding to extracellular viruses and protozoans, hindering host cell infection. These nanomedicines also inhibit interaction of malaria parasite-infected cells with endothelial cells, which could represent a potential treatment for severe malaria. To optimise nanomedicines towards clinical translation, advanced nanomaterial characterisation techniques with single-particle sensitivity were employed, including fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to observe protein fouling and single particle automated Raman trapping analysis (SPARTA) to describe the inherent heterogeneity of the nanomedical formulations. We further developed two nanodiagnostic approaches to aim at detecting malaria transmission competency and bacterial implant infection, respectively. Innovative nanomedicines and nanodiagnostics represent exciting platforms towards urgently needed treatments and detection capabilities for infectious diseases.