Lipoamino acid-based micelles as promising delivery vehicles for monomeric amphotericin B

Lipoamino acid-based micelles have been developed as delivery vehicles for the hydrophobic drug amphotericin B (AmB). The micellar solubilisation of AmB by a gemini lipoamino acid (LAA) derived from cysteine and its equimolar mixtures with the bile salts sodium cholate (NaC) and sodium deoxycholate (NaDC), as well as the aggregation sate of the drug in the micellar systems, was studied under biomimetic conditions (phosphate buffered-saline, pH 7.4) using UV-vis spectroscopy. Pure surfactant systems and equimolar mixtures were characterized by tensiometry and important parameters were determined, such as critical micelle concentration (CMC), surface tension at the CMC (γCMC), maximum surface excess concentration (Γmax), and minimum area occupied per molecule at the water/air interface (Amin). Rheological behaviour from viscosity measurements at different shear rates was also addressed. Solubilisation capacity was quantified in terms of molar solubilisation ratio (χ), micelle-water partition coefficient (KM) and Gibbs energy of solubilisation (ΔGs°). Formulations of AmB in micellar media were compared in terms of drug loading, encapsulation efficiency, aggregation state of AmB and in vitro antifungal activity against Candida albicans. The LAA-containing micellar systems solubilise AmB in its monomeric and less toxic form and exhibit in vitro antifungal activity comparable to that of the commercial formulation Fungizone.