Synergistic antibacterial effect of the pistachio green hull extract-loaded porphysome decorated with 4-nitroimidazole against bacteria

Abstract

‘Active targeting’ refers to modifying a nanocarrier’s surface with targeting ligands. This study introduced an efficient approach for immobilizing imidazole-based drugs onto the metallated-porphyrin complex within the porphysome nanocarrier. To enhance cellular and bacterial uptake, a Ni-porphyrin with a fatty acid tail was synthesized and placed in the bilayer center of DPPC, facilitating receptor-mediated endocytosis. The Ni-porphyrin in the head group of the Ni-porphyrin-tail was placed superficially in the polar region of the membrane. Spherical unilamellar vesicle formation (DPPC: Ni-porphyrin-tail 4:1 mole ratio), as metallo-porphysome, was achieved through supramolecular self-assembly in an aqueous buffer. These vesicles exhibited a diameter of 279 ± 7 nm and a zeta potential of −15.3 ± 2.5 mV, showcasing their unique cytocompatibility. Nitroimidazole was decorated on the surface of metallo-porphysomes and pistachio green hull extract (PGHE) was loaded into the carrier for synergistic activity against (E. coli) and (S. aureus) bacteria strains. The physicochemical properties of Nitroimidazole-porphysome-PGHE, including size, zeta potential, morphology, loading efficiency, and release profile under various pH and temperature conditions in simulated gastrointestinal fluids were characterized. This combination therapy prevented bacterial cell attachment and biofilm formation in Caco-2 cells, as colon epithelial cells. The remarkable benefit of this system is that it does not affect cell viability even at 0.5 mg/ml. This study demonstrates the potential of a new co-delivery system using biocompatible metallo-porphysomes to decrease bacterial infections.

Keywords:

• Antibacterial activity
• 4-nitroimidazole
• pistachio green hull
• porphysome
• combination therapy

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere to Mr. Reza Mahdavian for his valuable assistance with the cell and bacteria experiments. The authors would also like to acknowledge all the support and funding provided by the research council of the Science and Research branch of Islamic Azad University and Tarbiat Modares University.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animal experiments.

Authors’ contributions

Nastaran Mahafel and Zahra Vaezi: conceived and designed the study; writing and editing conceptualization, Material preparation, data collection and analysis. Hossein Naderi-Manesh was supervisor, conceptualization, resources, funding acquisition. Mohsen Barzegar and Azadeh Hekmat: were advisors and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data and code availability statement

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.