Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Apr;29(2):145-9.
doi: 10.7555/JBR.28.20130096. Epub 2014 Dec 10.

Evaluation of metal nanoparticles for drug delivery systems

Oluyomi S Adeyemi  1 , Faoziyat A Sulaiman  2
Affiliations

Evaluation of metal nanoparticles for drug delivery systems

Oluyomi S Adeyemi et al. J Biomed Res. 2015 Apr.

Abstract

Diminazene aceturate is a trypanocide with unwanted toxicity and limited efficacy. It was reasoned that conjugating diminazene aceturate to functionalized nanoparticle would lower untoward toxicity while improving selectivity and therapeutic efficacy. Silver and gold nanoparticles were evaluated for their capacities to serve as carriers for diminazene aceturate. The silver and gold nanoparticles were synthesized, functionalized and coupled to diminazene aceturate following established protocols. The nanoparticle conjugates were characterized. The free diminazene aceturate and drug conjugated nanoparticles were subsequently evaluated for cytotoxicity in vitro. The characterizations by transmission electron microscopy or UV/Vis spectroscopy revealed that conjugation of diminazene aceturate to silver or gold nanoparticles was successful. Evaluation for cytotoxic actions in vitro demonstrated no significance difference between free diminazene aceturate and the conjugates. Our data suggest that surface modified metal nanoparticles could be optimized for drug delivery systems.

Keywords: drugs; nanoparticles; targeting; toxicity; trypanocides.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors reported no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. UV/Vis spectrum for silver nanoparticle – folate – diminazene aceturate (AgNp_Folate_Diminazene) conjugate (A) and gold nanoparticle – folate diminazene aceturate (AuNp_folate_diminazene) conjugate (B).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. TEM images for AgNp_folate_diminazene conjugates (A-C) and AuNp_folate_diminazene conjugates (D-F).
A: Ag nanoparticles (AgNp); B: AgNp_ folate modified; C: AgNp_folate_diminazene conjugates; D: Au nanoparticles (AuNp); E: AuNp_folate modified; F: AuNp_folate_diminazene conjugates.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adeyemi OS, Akanji MA, Oguntoye SA. Ethanolic leaf extract of Psidium guajava: Phytochemical and trypanocidal activity in rats infected with Trypanosoma brucei brucei. J Med Plants Res. 2009;3(5):420–423.
    1. Sulaiman FA, Adeyemi OS. Changes in haematological indices and protein concentrations in Trypanosoma infected-rats treated with homidium chloride and diminazene aceturate. EXCLI Journal. 2010;9:39–45. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organisation. Control and surveillance of African trypanosomiasis: report of WHO expert committee. WHO Tech Rep Ser. 1998:1–114. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organisation. African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness: Fact Sheet. 2001. p. 259.http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs259/en/
    1. Akpa PO, Ezeokonkwo RC, Eze CA, et al. Comparative efficacy assessment of pentamidine isethionate and diminazene aceturate in the chemotherapy of Trypanosoma brucei brucei infection in dogs. Vet. Parasitol. 2008;151(2–4):139–149. - PubMed