Nanoemulsões contendo fitol como alternativa farmacológica para o tratamento da leishimaniose cutânea

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is considered one of the main neglected diseases in the world, with large numbers of cases annually, it is caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania spp. and affects mainly populations in poorer countries. The treatment of the disease is very limited, toxic to the patient, high cost and the parasite is resistant to chemotherapy. In this way, trying to solve problems such as the side effects of drugs already in use, reducing drug resistance and improving existing treatments, pharmaceutical nanotechnology appears with drug delivery systems on a nanometric scale, as is the case of nanoemulsions (NE). At the same time, alternative leishmanicidal active principles have been sought to treat the disease, such as phytol, which is a component of chlorophyll from the diterpene class, which is found abundantly in nature and has a wide range of proven biological activities. Thus, the present study aims to develop NE containing biocompatible phytol by the phase inversion emulsification technique, to evaluate the effect of the composition on the physical-chemical parameters of the nanoemulsions, to observe the long-term and accelerated stability of the systems obtained with and without the active one, also observe the cytocompatible profile in 3T3 cells, the hemolytic potential in erythrocytes and the in vitro capacity of these antileishmanial systems. Thus, it was observed that the EN developed were stable for up to 30 days and under high stress conditions with centrifugations at high rotations showing adequate macroscopic and physical-chemical parameters. A cytocompatible profile was also observed at up to 70% in the concentrations tested with the cell line tested and in the hemolysis assay only showed hemolysis in the initial concentrations, suggesting safety for administering the system in an in vivo study. It was also observed that the developed EN had a good and timedependent activity. Therefore, the NE produced proved to be a promising drug for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis, proving to be safe and effective.