Benelli Giovanni
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy; The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025 Pontedera, Pisa, Italy.
Acta Trop. 2018 Feb;178:73-80. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2017.10.021. Epub 2017 Oct 29.
Nanomaterials are currently considered for many biological, biomedical and environmental purposes, due to their outstanding physical and chemical properties. The synthesis of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) is of high interest for research in parasitology and entomology, since these nanomaterials showed promising applications, ranging from detection techniques to drug development, against a rather wide range of parasites of public health relevance, as well as on insect vectors. Here, I reviewed current knowledge about the bioactivity of Au NPs on selected insect species of public health relevance, including major mosquito vectors, such as Aedes aegypti, Anopheles stephensi and Culex quinquefasciatus. The toxicity of Au NPs against helminths was reviewed, covering Schistosoma mansoni trematodes as well as Raillietina cestodes. Furthermore, I summarized the information available on the antiparasitic role of Au NPs in the fight against malaria, leishmaniosis, toxoplasmosis, trypanosomiasis, cryptosporidiosis, and microsporidian parasites affecting human and animals health. Besides, I examined the employ of Au NPs as biomarkers, tools for diagnostics and adjuvants for the induction of transmission blocking immunity in malaria vaccine research. In the final section, major challenges and future outlooks for further research are discussed, with special reference to the pressing need of further knowledge about the effect of Au NPs on other arthropod vectors, such as ticks, tsetse flies, tabanids, sandflies and blackflies, and related ecotoxicology assays.
由于其出色的物理和化学性质，纳米材料目前被用于许多生物学、生物医学和环境领域。金纳米颗粒（Au NPs）的合成在寄生虫学和昆虫学研究中备受关注，因为这些纳米材料在从检测技术到药物开发等一系列应用中显示出了潜力，可用于对抗多种具有公共卫生意义的寄生虫以及昆虫媒介。在此，我回顾了关于Au NPs对某些具有公共卫生意义的昆虫物种（包括主要的蚊媒，如埃及伊蚊、斯氏按蚊和致倦库蚊）生物活性的现有知识。还回顾了Au NPs对蠕虫的毒性，涵盖曼氏血吸虫吸虫以及瑞氏绦虫。此外，我总结了关于Au NPs在对抗疟疾、利什曼病、弓形虫病、锥虫病、隐孢子虫病以及影响人类和动物健康的微孢子虫寄生虫方面的抗寄生虫作用的现有信息。此外，我研究了Au NPs作为生物标志物、诊断工具以及疟疾疫苗研究中诱导传播阻断免疫的佐剂的应用。在最后一部分，讨论了进一步研究的主要挑战和未来展望，特别提到了迫切需要进一步了解Au NPs对其他节肢动物媒介（如蜱、采采蝇、虻、白蛉和蚋）的影响以及相关的生态毒理学分析。
