Development of Lipid Nanocarriers for Tuberculosis Treatment: Evalua- tion of Suitable Excipients and Nanocarriers

Background: Lipid nanocarriers have been widely tested as drug delivery systems to treat diseases due to their bioavailability , controlled release , and low toxicity. For the pulmonary route , the Food and Drug Administration favor s the use of substances generally recognized as safe , as well as biodegradable and biocompatible to minimize the possibility of toxicity. Tuberculosis (T-B) remains a public health threat worldwide , mainly due to the long treatment duration and adverse effects. Therefore, new drug delivery systems for treating TB are needed. Objective: Physicochemical characterization of different lipid-based nanocarriers was used to opti-mize carrier properties. Optimized systems were incubated withMycobacterium tuberculosis to as-sess whether lipid-based systems act as the energy source for the bacteria, which could be counter-productive to therapy. Methods: Several excipients and surfactants were evaluated to prepare different types of nanocarri-ers using high-pressure homogenization. Results: A mixture of trimyristin with castor oil was chosen as the lipid matrix after differential scanning calorimetry analysis. A mixtur e of egg lecithin and PEG-660 stearate was selected as an optimal surfactant system , as this mixture formed the most stable formulations. Three types of lipid nanocarriers , solid lipid nanoparticles , nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC), and nanoemulsions, were prepared, with the NLC systems showing the most suitable properties for further evaluation. It may provide the advantages of increasing the entrapment efficiency , drug release , and the ability to be lyophilized, producing powder for pulmonary administration as an alternative to entrap poor water-soluble molecules. Conclusion : Furthermore, the NLC system can be considered for use as a platform for the treat-ment of TB through the pulmonary route.