Preparation of meglumine antimonate loaded albumin nanoparticles and evaluation of its anti-leishmanial activity: an in vitro assay.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is still a health problem worldwide, especially in tropical and subtropical areas. Currently, pentavalent antimony compounds are used to treat leishmaniasis. These compounds cause various side effects in the body. Therefore, there is a need to discover new drugs with less toxicity and more therapeutic effects. In this study, we encapsulated the meglumine antimonate into the albumin as a drug carrier and evaluated the anti-leishmanial effect of the prepared nanoparticles. The precipitation method was used for this purpose by applying different concentrations of glutaraldehyde and N-(3-Dimethylaminopropyl)-N-ethyl carbodiimide hydro chloride Ethyl (DEC) and then, field emission test was performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy for evaluating the morphology and size particles. The cytotoxicity and inhibitory of drugs were evaluated on J774 macrophages and Leishmania major promastigotes, respectively. Nanodrugs prepared using glutaraldehyde (10 μl/ml) and DEC (13 mg/ml) had the smallest and largest size, respectively. The highest anti-leishmanial activity was observed in the drugs prepared with glutaraldehyde (10 μl/ml). Also this nanodrug had the lowest cytotoxicity against macrophages. Given that meglumine antimonate loaded albumin nanoparticles prepared with glutaraldehyde (10 μg/ml), can improve the anti-leishmanial effects of this old drug, it can be a good option as a drug delivery system.