AI Article Synopsis

  • Fungal infections pose serious health risks for immunocompromised individuals, and while Amphotericin B (AMB) is an effective antifungal, it has limitations such as kidney toxicity and solubility issues.
  • Researchers created pH-responsive nanoparticles (CDA-AMB-NPs) that can enhance the efficacy of AMB by addressing the acidity at infection sites and improving drug delivery.
  • The study found that these nanoparticles significantly boost the targeting ability and effectiveness of AMB against fungi while reducing its toxic side effects, showing promise as a new method for antifungal treatment.

Article Abstract

Fungal infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Amphotericin B (AMB), with broad-spectrum antifungal activity, has long been recognized as a powerful fungicidal drug, but its clinical toxicities mainly nephrotoxicity and poor solubility limit its wide application in clinical practice. The fungal metabolism along with the host immune response usually generates acidity at sites of infection, resulting in loss of AMB activity in a pH-dependent manner. Herein, we developed pH-responsive AMB-loaded and surface charge-switching poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid)-b-poly(L-histidine)-b-poly(ethylene glycol) (PLGA-PLH-PEG) nanoparticles for resolving the localized acidity problem and enhance the antifungal efficacy of AMB. Moreover, we modified AMB-encapsulated PLGA-PLH-PEG nanoparticles with anti-Candida albicans antibody (CDA) (CDA-AMB-NPs) to increase the targetability. Then, CDA-AMB-NPs were characterized in terms of physical characteristics, in vitro drug release, stability, drug encapsulation efficiency, and toxicity. Finally, the targetability and antifungal activity of CDA-AMB-NPs were investigated in vitro/in vivo. The result demonstrated that CDA-AMB-NPs significantly improve the targetability and bioavailability of AMB and thus improve its antifungal activity and reduce its toxicity. These NPs may become a good drug carrier for antifungal treatment.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4486495PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s11671-015-0969-1DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

antifungal activity
16
plga-plh-peg nanoparticles
8
activity
5
antifungal
5
enhanced antifungal
4
activity ab-modified
4
ab-modified amphotericin
4
amphotericin b-loaded
4
b-loaded nanoparticles
4
nanoparticles ph-responsive
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!