Targeting Leishmania amazonensis amastigotes through macrophage internalisation of a hydroxymethylnitrofurazone nanostructured polymeric system

•NFOH poly (n-butyl cyanoacrylate) nanoparticle encapsulation efficiency was 64.47 ± 0.43%.•The CC50 was 122.3 µM for PBCA–NFOH-NPs, 142.9 µM for unloaded NPs and 237.0 µM for free NFOH.•PBCA–NFOH-NPs showed IC50 values of 4.9 µM and 0.33 µM for L. amazonensis promastigotes and amastigotes, respectively.•The selectivity index was 370.6 for PBCA–NFOH-NPs, which was 49-fold higher than free NFOH (7.6).•The activity of PBCA–NFOH-NPs revealed the potential application for targeted delivery to macrophages.