1. Smart nanocrystals of artemether: fabrication, characterization, and comparative in vitro and in vivo antimalarial evaluation.
- Author
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Shah SM, Ullah F, Khan S, Shah SM, de Matas M, Hussain Z, Minhas MU, AbdEl-Salam NM, Assi KH, and Isreb M
- Subjects
- Analysis of Variance, Animals, Antimalarials toxicity, Artemether, Artemisinins toxicity, Biological Availability, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical, Drug Liberation, Drug Stability, Hypromellose Derivatives chemistry, Lethal Dose 50, Malaria, Vivax drug therapy, Malaria, Vivax parasitology, Male, Mice, Particle Size, Plasmodium falciparum drug effects, Plasmodium vivax drug effects, Povidone chemistry, Solubility, Tablets, Antimalarials chemistry, Antimalarials pharmacology, Artemisinins chemistry, Artemisinins pharmacology, Nanoparticles chemistry
- Abstract
Artemether (ARTM) is a very effective antimalarial drug with poor solubility and consequently low bioavailability. Smart nanocrystals of ARTM with particle size of 161±1.5 nm and polydispersity index of 0.172±0.01 were produced in <1 hour using a wet milling technology, Dena
® DM-100. The crystallinity of the processed ARTM was confirmed using differential scanning calorimetry and powder X-ray diffraction. The saturation solubility of the ARTM nanocrystals was substantially increased to 900 µg/mL compared to the raw ARTM in water (145.0±2.3 µg/mL) and stabilizer solution (300.0±2.0 µg/mL). The physical stability studies conducted for 90 days demonstrated that nanocrystals stored at 2°C-8°C and 25°C were very stable compared to the samples stored at 40°C. The nanocrystals were also shown to be stable when processed at acidic pH (2.0). The solubility and dissolution rate of ARTM nanocrystals were significantly increased ( P <0.05) compared to those of its bulk powder form. The results of in vitro studies showed significant antimalarial effect ( P <0.05) against Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax . The IC50 (median lethal oral dose) value of ARTM nanocrystals was 28- and 54-fold lower than the IC50 value of unprocessed drug and 13- and 21-fold lower than the IC50 value of the marketed tablets, respectively. In addition, ARTM nanocrystals at the same dose (2 mg/kg) showed significantly ( P <0.05) higher reduction in percent parasitemia (89%) against P. vivax compared to the unprocessed (27%), marketed tablets (45%), and microsuspension (60%). The acute toxicity study demonstrated that the LD50 value of ARTM nanocrystals is between 1,500 mg/kg and 2,000 mg/kg when given orally. This study demonstrated that the wet milling technology (Dena® DM-100) can produce smart nanocrystals of ARTM with enhanced antimalarial activities., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.- Published
- 2016
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