| Of all of the infectious diseases known in modern times {e.g. Tuberculosis, Cholera, Ebola, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Meningitis, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)} none has had greater impact on global health as malaria. About 1.2 billion people live in areas endemic with this disease with nearly half a million fatalities every year. Chemotherapeutic applications since the 1820s have been formulated as preventative measures and for the treatment of malaria infections. Unfortunately, since its inception, multiple issues with patient compliance and drug formulations have led to increasing resistance from the malaria causing parasite Plasmodium . This project focuses on using oral film technology (OFT) with the novel application of dissolvable silk films for drug delivery to the oral mucosa. The antimalarial prophylactic, mefloquine hydrochloride was studied and found to be suitable for this application. This approach has potential to be instrumental as a type of application for other antimalarial therapeutics that are unable to be orally administered and also to increase patient compliance in areas endemic with the disease. |
