Desenvolvimento e caracterização de microemulsão antifúngica contendo derivado do tiofeno

Abstract

Fungal infections have become an issue of great impact around the world, and the Candida species and Cryptococcus neoformans are responsible for various clinical manifestations mainly in immunocompromised patients. The antifungal therapy is actually based in a few chemotherapeutic agents that present problems of efficacy and resistance. The thiophene derivatives molecules are related to various biological properties including antifungal activity. The 5CN05 molecule is a thiophene derivative which has in vitro antifungal activity and poor water solubility. Currently, great emphasis has been given to the incorporation of this kind of molecules in colloidal systems such as microemulsions (ME). The present study aimed to incorporate the 5CN05 molecule in a ME as well as perform the physicochemical and rheological characterization of the formulations and evaluate the antifungal activity against Candida species and Cryptococcus neoformans. Were evaluated two methods to incorporate the 5CN05. For morphology characterization of the MEs were used the methods of polarized light microscopy (MLP), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The rheological studies evaluated the flow behavior (flow tests) and the viscoelastic behavior (oscillatory tests) of the MEs. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined using the microdilution method indicated by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, using amphotericin B as a control. The developed formulation consists of LAS® (35.3%), Plurol Oleique® (17.5%), isopropyl myristate (5.9%) and water (41.2%). Using the techniques of MLP, DSC and TEM was possible to confirm the structure of the ME system as oil in water (O/W) droplets. The incorporation method by ultrasonic homogenization was effective. Rheologically, the ME-5CN05 was characterized as a pseudoplastic non-newtonian fluid, showing viscoelasticity and elastic solid behavior. The evaluated formulations exhibited physicochemical properties that allow its use by the topical route. The 5CN05 showed moderate or weak antifungal activity against Candida species (270-540 μg.mL-1) and good activity against C. neoformans (17 μg.mL-1). The Candida yeasts showed sensitivity to the ME-5CN05 (70-140 μg.mL-1) and C. neoformans showed MIC of 2.2 μg.mL-1. The results of this work show to be promising since it may represent a therapeutic alternative against C. neoformans.