Application of heparin as a dual agent with antimalarial and liposome targeting activities toward Plasmodium-infected red blood cells

Left panel: Heparin (green) binds and penetrates erythrocytes infected by Plasmodium parasites (blue) but not uninfected cells. Central panel: Experimental setup for the examination of an additive activity of heparin as antimalarial and as targeting agent toward parasitized red blood cells (pRBCs), where heparin is electrostatically conjugated to antimalarial drug-containing liposomes. Right panel: Proposed model where heparin-functionalized liposomes specifically deliver their contents (both drug and heparin) to pRBCs, lowering the drug IC50 and adding to it the antimalarial activity of heparin itself.323