Specific Cell Targeting Therapy Bypasses Drug Resistance Mechanisms in African Trypanosomiasis
Fig 1
Sensitive profile of T. brucei bloodstream forms.
(a) IC50 analysis. Pentamidine (grey column); pentamidine-loaded PEGylated chitosan nanoparticles (pentamidine-chNPs, red column) and nanobody-coated pentamidine-loaded PEGylated chitosan nanoparticles (NbAn33-pentamidine-chNPs, blue column). Errors bars indicate S.D. from 3–9 independent experiments. Statistical significance was ***, p<0.001. (b) Therapeutic effect in T. brucei acute infection mouse model. Survival (Kaplan-Meier plot) of female C57BL/6J mice infected with T. brucei AnT1.1 (1 x 104 parasites). The treatment started once the parasites were detected in blood, at the 3rd day after inoculation and consisted in a daily dose in four consecutive days. Treatment with pentamidine, pentamidine-chNPs, NbAn33-pentamidine-chNPs, NbAn33-chNPs empty (nanobody-coated non pentamidine-loaded PEGylated chitosan nanoparticles) and vehicle (physiological saline solution). (c) Parasitemia in T. brucei acute infection mouse model. Treatment with vehicle (physiological saline solution), NbAn33-chNPs empty (nanobody-coated PEGylated-chitosan nanoparticles), free pentamidine, pentamidine-chNPs (pentamidine-loaded PEGylated chitosan nanoparticles), NbAn33-pentamidine-chNPs (nanobody-coated pentamidine-loaded PEGylated chitosan nanoparticles).