Abstract
Malaria represents one of the most common infectious diseases which becoming an impellent public health problem worldwide. Antimalarial classical medications include quinine-based drugs, like chloroquine, and artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin, a molecule found in the plantArtemisia annua. Such therapeutics are very effective but show heavy side effects like drug resistance. In this study, "green" silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been prepared from twoArtemisiaspecies (A.abrotanumandA.arborescens), traditionally used in folk medicine as a remedy for different conditions, and their potential antimalarial efficacy have been assessed. AgNPs have been characterized by UV-Vis, dynamic light scattering and zeta potential, FTIR, XRD, TEM and EDX. The structural characterization has demonstrated the spheroidal shape of nanoparticles and dimensions under 50 nm, useful for biomedical studies. Zeta potential analysis have shown the stability and dispersion of green AgNPs in aqueous medium without aggregation. AgNPs hemocompatibility and antimalarial activity have been studied inPlasmodium falciparumcultures inin vitroexperiments. The antiplasmodial effect has been assessed using increasing doses of AgNPs (0.6 to 7.5 mu g/mL) on parasitized red blood cells (pRBCs). Obtained data showed that the hemocompatibility of AgNPs is related to their synthetic route and depends on the administered dose.A.abrotanum-AgNPs (1) have shown the lowest percentage of hemolytic activity on pRBCs, underlining their hemocompatibility. These results are in accordance with the lower levels of parasitemia observed afterA.abrotanum-AgNPs (1) treatment respect toA.arborescens-AgNPs (2), and AgNPs (3) derived from a classical chemical synthesis. Moreover, after 24 and 48 hours ofA.abrotanum-AgNPs (1) treatment, the parasite growth was locked in the ring stage, evidencing the effect of these nanoparticles to hinder the maturation ofP.falciparum. The anti-malarial activity ofA.abrotanum-AgNPs (1) on pRBCs was demonstrated to be higher than that ofA.arborescens-AgNPs (2).