title: Carbon nanotube based betulin formulation shows better efficacy against Leishmania parasite.
abstract: We report a novel antileishmanial formulation of betulin (BET) attached to functionalized carbon nanotubes (f-CNTs). We conjugated betulin, a pentacyclic triterpenoid secondary metabolite, to carboxylic acid chains on f-CNTs to obtain BET attached functionalized carbon nanotubes (f-CNT-Bet). The drug release profile demonstrated a fairly slow release of BET. The in-vitro cytotoxicities of BET, f-CNT and f-CNT-BET on J774A.1 macrophage cell line were 211.05±7.14μg/ml; 24.67±3.11μg/ml and 72.63±6.14μg/ml, respectively. The IC50 of BET and f-CNT-BET against intracellular Leishmania donovani amastigotes were 8.33±0.41μg/ml and 0.69±0.08μg/ml, respectively. The results demonstrate better antileishmanial efficiency of f-CNT-BET formulation than BET alone and with no significant cytotoxicity observed on host cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam 781039, India.
authors.forename: Prakash
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Saudagar
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam 781039, India. Electronic address: vdubey@iitg.ernet.in.
authors.forename: Vikash Kumar
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Dubey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; D006801:Humans; D007891:Leishmania / Q000187:drug effects*; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000187:drug effects; D007896:Leishmaniasis; D008264:Macrophages / Q000469:parasitology; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D014315:Triterpenes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000094062:Betulinic Acid
chemical_list: D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D014315:Triterpenes; C002503:betulin; D000094062:Betulinic Acid