Abstract
In recent years, there has been great advancement in the treatment strategies for tackling various infectious diseases. In fact, with the introduction of chemotherapeutic stratagem in the recent past, the pharmaceutical companies were complacent thinking that miniscule creatures would not fight back. As a consequence, most of the pharma industries stopped research on the further advancement on antibiotics development. However, microbes revert antibiotic onslaught by developing resistant strains. Besides, emergence of drug-resistant pathogens, the arrival of unconventional infectious agents, and troubles in the development of new therapies using the traditional pharmacological tactics, led to a situation where more research on development of prophylactic strategies has emerged as best way to control infectious diseases. Continuous onslaught of various microbial pathogens on the human host, that too especially in the background of ineffectiveness of the antibiotics, can be considered as the main driving force for the earliest forays into the study of intricacies of making the drugs more efficacious. Unfortunately, there was no guarantee that the newly introduced drug molecules will not have same fate and neutralized by the microbes. The pharmacokinetics of a drug molecule in the host has been considered crucial in regulating its effectiveness against a disease. Interestingly, it can be speculated that advancement in the nanotechnology field can be exploited in altering the pharmacokinetic behaviour of the drug molecules to the extent that it can tackle the
drug resistant and other treatment related issues. In general, Infections alter the constitution of basic immune machinery and put the host at risk for contracting more infections. It is enticing to consider the fact that stimulation of an individual’s defensive immunological response towards a specific pathogen prevents the development of any sort of infection in the vaccinated person. The basis of vaccination is the exposure to a whole pathogen or part of its structural components to trigger the immune response in the recipient. The induction of pathogen-directed adaptive immune response generates ‘immunological memory’ in terms of the induction of memory B and T cells. In this regard it is tempting to speculate that nanovaccines create long-lasting immunity which lasts for several years and even a life time. Being particulate in nature, the nanoparticle encapsulated antigen can be avidly taken up by the macrophages and stimulate the presentation andprocessing of the entrapped antigen, and eventually the cross presentation to dendritic cells that led to the increased T cell stimulation and proliferation, antibody production, increased central T cell memory, and effector immune response, all of which ultimately offer better protection against the parent infectious agent. It is tempting to speculate that nanoparticle based drug and antigen delivery systems
pave the way for a novel technology leading to effective treatment and prophylactic strategy against infectious disease. Interestingly, the proposed approach can be extended to cancer chemotherapy and vaccine development as well.
Biography
