Filomicelle Functionalization and Stability Studies with Applications for Malaria Treatments

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by the parasite Plasmodium that is transmitted by mosquitoes. It is estimated that malaria causes 1.1 million deaths per year globally. While anti-malarial drugs have been effective in treating infected individuals, new methodologies are needed. Treatments may benefit from approaches that encapsulate drugs in vehicles allowing for more effective delivery. To this end, the use of targeted drug delivery vehicles called filomicelles to treat malaria is proposed.

Certain amphiphilic diblock copolymers self-assemble into filomicelles (long and stable cylindrical micelles), which are capable of carrying hydrophobic drugs in the bodies of rodents. It is shown in this dissertation that the surface of these filomicelles can be covalently modified with peptides. The peptides have been found by other research groups to bind apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) of malaria parasites. AMA1 is part of the machinery that allows Plasmodium to infect red blood cells.