A comparative study on the potentials of nanoliposomes and nanoethosomes for Fluconazole delivery

The incidence of fungal has been increased worldwide. Biofilms are common assemblies of microorganisms enclosed in an exopolymeric coat that form on the biotic and abiotic surfaces which related to a variety of persistent infections that poorly respond to conventional antibiotic therapy. Fluconazole is a proved imidazole derivative which has a broad range of activity and is effective against most pathogenic fungi. In the present work we encapsulated Fluconazole by using nanoliposomal (by thin film hydration method) and nanoethosomal (by ethanol injection method) formulations and made a comparative evaluation of their morphology, particle size, zeta potential, and encapsulation efficiency. Antifungal analysis against Candida albicans (C. albicans) indicated that only in vitro experiments cannot indicate the merits of nanovesicular systems and even may show the vice versa results. Vesicle size, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of the optimized nanoliposomes and nanoethosomes were found to be 99.79 ± 11.1 nm, −7.25 ± 4.88, mV 98.32 ± 3.93%, and 8.93 ± 0.36%, as well as 114.37 ± 12.76 nm, 3.04 ± 5.47 mV, 67.22 ± 3.68% and 9.58 ± 2.35%, respectively. In vitro drug release study demonstrated that nanoliposomal and nanoethosomal formulations could release 40% and 80% of loaded drug after 48 h. Although, nanoliposomal and nanoethosomal formulations showed suitable size, morphology, encapsulation efficiency, and drug release, nanoliposomes seem to be more appropriate than nanoethosomes for prevention of fungal biofilm formation due to higher drug entrapment and sustained drug release.