Nanostructured lipid carriers loaded with essential oils: a strategy against SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

This work aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Lippia sidoides and Syzygium aromaticum essential oils (EOs) encapsulated in nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) as SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors through virucidal activity assessment. We developed anionic and cationic NLCs loaded with the EOs and assessed their physicochemical properties and SARS-CoV-2 virucidal activity, focusing on the effects of EO type and the NLCs composition. The NLCs exhibited particle sizes of 141.30 to 160.53 nm for anionic and 109.30 to 138.60 nm for cationic types, with PDIs between 0.16 and 0.25. High zeta potentials (>29.0 in modulus) indicated stable formulations. The NLCs effectively encapsulated the EOs, achieving encapsulation efficiencies between 84.6 to 100% w/w of marker compound. The EOs-loaded NLCs reduced the SARS-CoV-2 virion count, exceeding 2 logs over the control. NLCs loaded with Lippia sidoides and Syzygium aromaticum EOs represent an innovative strategy for combating SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords:

• Essential oils
• encapsulation
• lipid nanosystems
• SARS-CoV-2
• antiviral
• virucidal

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement (CAPES) - Grant No. 88887505019/2020–00, the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) - Grants 2016/20500–6 and 2018/26069–0, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) – Grants n° 121520/2021–8 and n° 121675/2022–0, and AssayX biotechnology (www.assayxbiotechnology.com) for their financial support in acquiring the consumables used in the antiviral activity assay.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.