Design and characterization of tioconazole loaded chitosan nanocapsules for the treatment of vaginal candidiasis.

SREEKUMAR, S.; CALVO, NATALIA L.; SVETAZ, L.; LEONARDI, D.; LAMAS, M.C.; MOERSCHBACHER, B.

Barcelona

Congreso; 9th International Colloids Conference; 2019

Elsevier Ltd.

Vaginal candidiasis is an opportunistic mucosal infection that affects women and is the second most common cause of vaginitis after bacterial vaginosis. Among different Candida species causing this disease, C. albicans is the most predominant yeast. It is commonly treated using azole antifungals, such as fluconazole, miconazole, itraconazole, clotrimazole, econazole, ketoconazole, or tioconazole (TCZ). TCZ, an imidazole antifungal agent, exhibits a broad spectrumof activity against a variety of microorganisms, and a higher activity against C. albicans than other azoles. Therefore, it is often used for the topical treatment of superficial mycoses and for the treatment of vaginal candidiasis. However, its low water solubility severely affects the therapeutic efficiency of the drug. Therefore, we propose the encapsulation of the drug in chitosan nanocapsules to overcome the low water solubility and enabling sustained release of the drug.The chitosan nanocapsules displayed high drug encapsulation efficiency of 99%.Colloidal stability observed over a period of two months.Bioactivity assays suggested a high activity of the drug loaded nanocapsules against C.albicans at a concentration that was non-toxic to human keratinocytes.