Roghayeh Norouzi
Nanoparticles (NPs) are particles with the size range approximately from 1 to 100 nanometers that are made in different shapes. Nanotechnology is an emerging technology that expected to open some new opportunities in order to destroy and control of microorganisms using of materials and systems at the scale of the atom. Parasitic diseases affect millions of people worldwide, especially in developing countries and are involved with many limitations in treatment methods. Recently, some of parasites demonstrated drug resistance, which increased the need for new effective and safer agents against parasitic infection or improvement of the drugs. There is no vaccine available for the prevention of many parasitic infections, and hence chemotherapy is the current mainstay of control. NPs have received most attention as antiparasitic drugs in few decades since current antiparasitic drugs have some side effects and their efficacy is not fully proved yet. However, little attention has been dealt to the use of nanoparticle derivatives as an antiparasitic drug. In this paper, developments in the use of NPs as anti-parasitic drugs are reviewed. Some researches indicated that gold NPs, oxidized metals, silver, chitosan and etc. have growth inhibitors or cytotoxic effect on diverse parasites, including Giardia, Leishmania, Plasmodium, Toxoplasma and helminthes including, Echinococcus multilocularis, Trichinella spiralis and Fasciola hepatica. NPs can be used separately or in combination with current drugs against parasites. Therefore, NPs are suggested as more effective and less side effects drugs for the prevention and controlling of the parasites.