Issue 43, 2020, Issue in Progress

Fluconazole conjugated-gold nanorods as an antifungal nanomedicine with low cytotoxicity against human dermal fibroblasts

Abstract

Herein, a nanotechnology-based approach was adopted to develop a facile and effective nanoplatform for the treatment of superficial fungal infections. Gold nanorods (GNR) functionalized with thiolated poly ethylene glycol (PEG-SH) or thiolated PEGylated cholesterol (Chol-PEG-SH) moieties were conjugated with Fluconazole and loaded into poloxamer 407 hydrogel. The obtained nanocomplexes; PEG-Fluc-GNR and Chol-Fluc-GNR were characterized by optical spectroscopy, hydrodynamic size and effective surface charge. The anti-fungal activity of the nanocomplexes was investigated by estimating the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the percentage reduction of fungal viable count against Candida (C.) albicans. PEG-Fluc-GNR and Chol-Fluc-GNR resulted in 5-fold and 14-fold reduction in MIC of GNR, and in 9-fold and 12-fold reduction in MIC of Fluconazole, respectively. The average log-reduction of the viable fungal cells upon treatment with the nanocomplexes was 5 log cycles, and it ranged from 1.3–3.7 log cycles when loaded into poloxamer 407 hydrogel. Transmission electron microscope imaging of the treated C. albicans revealed an enhanced uptake of the nanoparticles into the fungus's cell wall within the first 120 min of exposure. The nanocomplexes demonstrated low cytotoxicity towards human dermal fibroblasts which represent the human skin dermal cells. Conjugating Fluconazole with GNR is a promising approach for the effective treatment of superficial fungal infections.

Graphical abstract: Fluconazole conjugated-gold nanorods as an antifungal nanomedicine with low cytotoxicity against human dermal fibroblasts

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Jan 2020
Accepted
26 Jun 2020
First published
08 Jul 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2020,10, 25889-25897

Fluconazole conjugated-gold nanorods as an antifungal nanomedicine with low cytotoxicity against human dermal fibroblasts

K. M. Hamad, N. N. Mahmoud, S. Al-Dabash, L. A. Al-Samad, M. Abdallah and A. G. Al-Bakri, RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 25889 DOI: 10.1039/D0RA00297F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements