Investigating the self-assembling of nicotinic hydrazide-based amphiphile into nano-range vesicles and its amphotericin B loading applications

Abstract

Most of the drugs are hydrophobic and have low water solubility, therefore posing issues in their absorption and bioavailability. Nonionic surfactants improve the solubility of hydrophobic drugs by entrapping them in their lipid bilayers. Two nonionic surfactants NODNH-16 and NODNH-18 are synthesized and characterized using different techniques i.e. EI-MS, ¹H NMR, and FTIR. These newly synthesized surfactants were screened for blood hemolysis assay and cell toxicity studies using the NIH/3T3 cell line to assess their biocompatibility. Then amphotericin B was loaded into niosomal vesicles, and the drug entrapment efficiency of these surfactants was measured using UV–visible spectroscopy. The morphology of drug-loaded niosomes of synthesized surfactants was investigated using AFM, and their size, polydispersity, and zeta potential were measured with the Zetasizer instrument. Finally, a simulation study was performed to determine the pattern of self-assembly of the synthesized amphiphiles. Both synthesized nonionic surfactants showed good entrapment efficiency of 60.65 ± 2.12% and 68.45 ± 2.12%, respectively. It was also confirmed that both these synthesized nonionic surfactants were safe and biocompatible and showed less blood hemolysis (i.e. 21.13 ± 2.11% and 23.32 ± 2.45%) and higher 3T3 cells’ viability at 150 µg/mL concentration as compared to Tween®-80. The antifungal potential of amphotericin B-loaded niosomes has been evaluated against unicellular multi-fungal species, which showed a promising potential for fungicidal activity. These results are substantiated by constructing a safe vehicle system for drug delivery.

Keywords:

• Synthesis
• CMC
• self-assembly
• biocompatibility
• drug delivery

Author contribution

Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.

Data availability statement

NA

Ethical approval

This investigation does not require ethical approval because it does not involve the use of any animals or humans.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Sample Availability

NA

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding this work through group (large) research program under grant number RGP 2/70/43.