Pharmaceutics
February 2025
: Fungal infections caused by species remain a significant clinical challenge, exacerbated by limitations in current antifungal therapies, including toxicity and poor bioavailability. This study aimed to develop and evaluate voriconazole-loaded zein-pectin-hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (ZPHA-VRC NPs) as a novel drug delivery system to enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity. Alternative in vitro and in vivo models were utilized to assess the safety and therapeutic potential of the nanoparticles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSilibinin (SLB), a flavonoid derived from milk thistle, exhibits promising therapeutic properties but faces significant clinical limitations due to poor solubility and bioavailability. This study focuses on the development and characterization of SLB-loaded nanoemulsions designed for mucosal delivery. Nanoemulsions were prepared using the spontaneous emulsification method, guided by pseudoternary phase diagrams to determine selected component ratios.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBloodstream infection in neonates is a complicated disease and presents a major challenge both in diagnosis and in therapeutic intervention. The focus of the present study was to investigate the incidence, the species distribution and the risk factors associated with mortality of bloodstream infections in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and evaluating the antifungal susceptibility of traditional antifungal drugs and three nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems based on nanoparticles. A total of 458 patients were evaluated, and 9.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanotechnology-based drug delivery systems offer a solution to the pharmacokinetic limitations of voriconazole (VRC), including saturable metabolism and low oral bioavailability. This study developed zein/pectin/hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (ZPHA-VRC NPs) to improve VRC's pharmacokinetics and biodistribution. The nanoparticles had a spherical morphology with an average diameter of 268 nm, a zeta potential of -48.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmaceutics
May 2024
Liraglutide (LIRA) is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist renowned for its efficacy in treating type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and is typically administered via subcutaneous injections. Oral delivery, although more desirable for being painless and potentially enhancing patient adherence, is challenged by the peptide's low bioavailability and vulnerability to digestive enzymes. This study aimed to develop LIRA-containing zein-based nanoparticles stabilized with eudragit RS100 and chitosan for oral use (Z-ERS-CS/LIRA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
March 2024
Amphotericin B (AmB) is a widely used antifungal agent; however, its clinical application is limited due to severe side effects and nephrotoxicity associated with parenteral administration. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the utilization of food-grade materials as innovative components for nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems. This study introduces gliadin/casein nanoparticles encapsulating AmB (AmB_GliCas NPs), synthesized via antisolvent precipitation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSilybin (SLB), an important flavonoid from silymarin, displays significant hepatoprotective, anticancer, antioxidant, and neuroprotective effects. However, its therapeutic efficacy is limited by its low solubility and bioavailability. To address these challenges, we engineered bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanoparticles (NP) loaded with SLB (BSA-NP/SLB) using the coacervation method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerillyl alcohol (POH), a bioactive monoterpenoid derived from limonene, shows promise as an antitumor agent for brain tumor treatment. However, its limited oral bioavailability and inadequate brain distribution hinder its efficacy. To address these challenges, this study developed nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) loaded with POH to improve its brain biodistribution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLuteolin (LUT) is a flavonoid found in several edible and medicinal plants. It is recognized for its biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and antitumor effects. However, the limited water solubility of LUT leads to poor absorption after oral administration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvasive fungal infections increase mortality and morbidity rates worldwide. The treatment of these infections is still limited due to the low bioavailability and toxicity, requiring therapeutic monitoring, especially in the most severe cases. Voriconazole is an azole widely used to treat invasive aspergillosis, other hyaline molds, many dematiaceous molds, spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch Background: Gallic acid is a polyphenol with antioxidant and antitumor activities; however, its use as a nutraceutical or drug is hindered by its low bioavailability. Zein is a natural protein found in corn and has been applied as nanoparticle drug carrier. In this study, zein nanoparticles were obtained and stabilized with polyethylene glycol (PEG) as gallic acid carriers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is the largest pandemic in modern history with very high infection rates and considerable mortality. The disease, which emerged in China's Wuhan province, had its first reported case on December 29, 2019, and spread rapidly worldwide. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic and global health emergency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe skin aging process in women is accelerated due to decreases in serum estrogen levels triggered by the menopause process. Hence, poly(L-lactic acid) lipid-core nanocapsules containing ursolic acid (NPLA-UA) were developed using the interfacial deposition of the preformed polymer methodology as a strategy to reduce damages to the healing process caused by hormonal deficiency in ovariectomized rats. The colloidal suspensions of nanocapsules presented adequate size and morphology (254 and 375 nm), negative zeta potential (-31 and -37 mV), high encapsulation efficiency (99.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUrsolic acid (UA) is a naturally occurring triterpene that has been investigated for its antitumor activity. However, its lipophilic character hinders its oral bioavailability, and therapeutic application. To overcome these limitations, chitosan (CS) modified poly (lactic acid) (PLA) nanoparticles containing UA were developed, characterized, and had their oral bioavailability assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomed Chromatogr
April 2021
Perillyl alcohol (POH) is a monocyclic terpene that has strong antitumor activity. Brain tumors are particularly difficult to treat with therapeutic agents, and clinical trials have shown their low tolerance through oral administration. We proposed the entrapment of POH into an oil-in-water chitosan nanoemulsion aiming its intranasal administration for brain targeting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of biodegradable nanoparticles is an important tool for the biological transport of chemical compounds. The nanoencapsulation reduces the biopharmaceutical and pharmacokinetic drawbacks of compounds and enhances their biological properties. Naturally occurring polymers such as proteins and polysaccharides have been widely applied in the development of nanostructured systems of several therapeutic agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFungal infections are diseases that are considered neglected although their infection rates have increased worldwide in the last decades. Thus, since the antifungal arsenal is restricted and many strains have shown resistance, new therapeutic alternatives are necessary. Nanoparticles are considered important alternatives to promote drug delivery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective of this study was to develop zein-casein-lysine nanoparticles to modulate the intestinal permeability of ferulic acid (FA), a bioactive compound with proven antioxidant properties. The nanoparticles were obtained by a liquid-liquid dispersion method and were characterized in terms of mean size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, association efficiency (AE), in vitro drug release, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The in vitro intestinal permeability of nanoparticles was evaluated through Caco-2 and Caco-2/HT29-MTX monoculture and co-culture models, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive and incapacitating decay of cognitive, neuropsychiatric, and behavioral manifestations. L-tryptophan is the precursor amino acid of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter responsible for mood balance and the sense of well-being and can be administered in the form of nanoparticles.
Objective: This study analyzed the effectiveness of L-tryptophan nanoparticles and L-tryptophan on behavioral physiological alterations resulting from AD in animal models.
Amphotericin B (AmB) is a broad-spectrum antifungal drug used in the treatment of fungal invasive infections. However, its clinical use has been limited due to its side effects and toxicity, especially the nephrotoxicity. Furthermore, AmB presents low aqueous solubility, low permeability over the membranes and poor stability in the gastric environment, which makes it unavailable to be administered by the oral route.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCapsaicin (CAP) is a secondary metabolite with high therapeutic potential. It displays several bioactive properties including hypolipidemic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. However, CAP presents toxicity to healthy cells and poor pharmacokinetic profile, which is characterized by toxic metabolites and short half-life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurcumin is a natural compound presenting important antitumour activity. However, due to its low aqueous solubility, instability at physiological pH, and low oral bioavailability, its clinical use is limited. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanoparticles have been used as drug carriers to improve the drug properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper describes the development and in vitro evaluation of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles coated with chitosan (CS) for oral delivery of ferulic acid (FA). Nanoparticles were obtained by an emulsion evaporation technique and characterized. Furthermore, we evaluated the scavenging activity over hypochlorous acid (HOCl), the cytotoxicity over tumour cells and the in vitro intestinal permeability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: In this study, bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanoparticles coated with polysorbate- 80 (PS-80) and containing amphotericin B (AmB) were developed using a coacervation method.
Methods: The nanoparticles were spherical, had a uniform size distribution (polydispersity < 0.25), a small mean size (185 ± 5 nm), a high zeta potential (-38.