Nanoparticles as Potent Agents for Treatment of Schistosoma Infections: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Schistosomiasis is an acute and chronic parasitic disease caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma. The current drugs for treating schistosomiasis are associated with some side effects. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic study was an overview of the treatment of diseases caused by Schistosoma based on nanoparticles. METHODS: In the present systematic research with keywords “Schistosoma”, “parasitism”, “anti-Schistosoma activity”, “nanoparticles”, “metal nanoparticles”, “silver nanoparticles”, “gold nanoparticles”, “polymer nanoparticles”, “PLGA nanoparticles”, “nanoemulsions”, “in vitro”, and “in vivo” from five English-language databases, including ScienceDirect, europePMC, PubMed, Scopus, Ovid, and Cochrane were searched from 2000 to 2022 by 2 researchers. RESULTS: In the initial search, 250 studies were selected. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 27 articles were finally selected after removing duplicate, unrelated, and articles containing full text. In present article, the most nanoparticles used against Schistosoma were gold nanoparticles (22%). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate the high potential of various nanoparticles, including metal nanoparticles, against Schistosoma. Also, the remarkable anti-schistosomal activity of nanoparticles suggests their use in different fields to eliminate this pathogenic microorganism so that it can be used as an effective candidate in the preparation of anti-schistosomal compounds because these compounds have fewer side effects than chemical drugs. Ther Res Clin Exp. 2023; XX:XXX–XXX).