Development of patches containing the combination of artemether – lumefantrine for the treatment of malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria is one of the most important parasites in the world, infecting around 300 million people each year. It is an acute febrile infectious disease that is transmitted by vectors of the genus Anopheles whose agents are Plasmodium sp. Conventional therapy is often difficult for the disease, as patients do not adequately undergo treatment, thus favoring resistance to Plasmodium. Considering the small number of innovative antimalarial drugs approved in recent decades, the search for antimalarials that are less toxic and more efficient and the design of pharmaceutical systems based on nanotechnology can be considered as the main strategies in the fight against this disease. Artemether and lumefantrine free or encapsulated in nanoparticles will be used as antimalarial agents. For the development of nanoparticles, crisscrossing or self assembly techniques will be used. Transdermal patches will be designed with different delivery capacities. Quantitative and qualitative analyzes of the substances present in the adhesives will be performed using high-performance liquid chromatography and/or mass spectrometry. The nanoparticles will be evaluated using dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy techniques. Water vapor permeability, skin permeation, stability tests and microbiological evaluations will also be evaluated.

Project Details

Drug-based Strategies
Product Development

Apr 2015 — Feb 2019

Brazil