Fenticonazole nitrate loaded trans-novasomes for effective management of tinea corporis: design characterization, in silico study, and exploratory clinical appraisal

Abstract

The current investigation aimed for loading fenticonazole nitrate (FTN), an antifungal agent with low aqueous solubility, into trans-novasomes (TNs) for management of tinea corporis topically. TNs contain Brij ® as an edge activator besides the components of novasomes (cholesterol, Span 60, and oleic acid) owing to augment the topical delivery of FTN. TNs were fabricated applying ethanol injection method based on D-optimal experiment. TNs were evaluated with regard to entrapment efficiency percent (EE%), particle size (PS), polydispersity index (PDI), and zeta potential (ZP). Further explorations were conducted on the optimum formulation (F7). F7 showed spherical appearance with EE%, PS, PDI, and ZP of 100.00 ± 1.10%, 358.60 ± 10.76 nm, 0.51 ± 0.004, and −30.00 ± 0.80 mV, respectively. The in silico study revealed the ability of the FTN–cholesterol complex to maintain favorable interactions throughout the molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) study. Moreover, Trichophyton mentagrophytes growth was inhibited effectively by F7 than by FTN suspension applying 2,3-bis(2-methyloxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxanilide (XTT) reduction assay. Furthermore, a clinical appraisal on patients with tinea corporis fungal lesions confirmed the superiority of F7 compared to Miconaz ® cream in the magnitude of clinical cure of tinea corporis. Thereby, TNs could be considered as promising vesicles for enhancing the antifungal potential of FTN for the topical management of tinea corporis.

Exploring the Synergistic Effect of Bergamot Essential Oil with Spironolactone Loaded Nano-Phytosomes for Treatment of Acne Vulgaris: In Vitro Optimization, In Silico Studies, and Clinical Evaluation

“…Measurements of PS, PDI, and ZP of the prepared formulations were achieved by using Malvern Zetasizer (Malvern Instruments Ltd., UK) via dynamic light scattering technique at 25 °C. The measurements were attained after appropriate dilution [ 35 , 36 ]. All assessments (EE%, PS, PDI, and ZP) were performed in triplicate ± SD.…”

Repurposing levocetirizine hydrochloride loaded into cationic ceramide/phospholipid composite (CCPCs) for management of alopecia: central composite design optimization, in- silico and in-vivo studies

“…The electrophoretic movement of the particles was studied as part of the ZP measurement. All measurements were made three times to ensure accuracy (Imam et al, 2015 ; Elshafeey & El-dahmy, 2021 ; Albash et al, 2022 ).…”

A comprehensive review on recent nanosystems for enhancing antifungal activity of fenticonazole nitrate from different routes of administration

“…Ocular nanosystems include olaminosomes (O-OLN), novasomes (O-NV) and terpesomes (O-TP) (Albash et al., 2021 ; Ahmed et al., 2022 a,b). Topical nanosystems resemble trans-novasomes (T-T-NV) and cerosomes (T-CE) (Albash et al., 2021 ; 2022 ). Vaginal nanosystems include sodium deoxycholate (SDC) and ethanol-containing terpesomes (V-TP) (Albash et al., 2020 ).…”

“…Moreover, vaginal terpesomes (V-TP) were prepared adopting a Box-Behnken design (Albash et al., 2020 ). Finally, D-optimal design was adopted to formulate topical trans-novasomes (T-T-NV) (Albash et al., 2022 ). All the previous designs require few points, but the central composite designs offer elevated exactness, reasonable quantity of data for evaluating the appropriateness of fit in comparison with the three level full factorial design (Imanian & Biglari, 2022 ).…”