Abstract

Malaria is considered as complicated disease due to its variation in epidemiology and clinical symptoms in different part of the world. The Plasmodium parasite was found to be resistance to several antimalarial drugs over a period of time and such drug resistance has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing the control of malaria today. One possible solution to the problems associated with anti-malarial pharmaceutical is the use of nanomaterials such as liposomes. Liposomes improve the therapeutic efficacy by enhancing drug absorption while avoiding or minimizing rapid degradation and side effects, prolonging the biological half-life and reducing toxicity. The unique feature of liposomes is that they are biocompatible and biodegradable lipids and are inert and non-immunogenic. Liposomes can compartmentalize and solubilize both hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials. All these properties of liposomes and their flexibility for surface modification to add targeting moieties make liposomes more attractive candidates for use as effective drug delivery vehicles which could have potential for malaria eradication. This paper reviews the application of liposomes in the treatment of Plasmodium parasite.

Keywords: Liposomes; Malaria; Nano; Nanotechnology; Plasmodium; Phospholipid