Use of Pseudoboehmite Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery System of Glucantime®

Abstract

Recently, the incidence of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) has been grown in Latin America, especially in Brazil, where from 1980 to 2005, 605,062 cases were recorded. The drug glucantime®, whose active principle is the meglumine antimoniate (or meglumine antimonate) is used in the treatment of leishmaniasis. Its toxicity is due mainly to the presence of antimony in its structure. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the safe dose levels of this drug in the treatment. Drug delivery systems have been currently the focus of many studies due to its effectiveness in treating diseases proved to be superior compared to conventional methods. Drug delivery systems can avoid overdosing by decreasing the amount of drug intake, which results in a better therapeutic effect in addition to reducing the risks of plasma concentration reaching toxic levels. Synthetic nanomaterials have been receiving great attention due to their potential applications in pharmaceutical technology as well as the possibility of controlling their particle size and composition, which allows a better performance in drug release. Pseudoboehmite is a synthetic aluminum compound precursor of alumina [1] and a polymorph of boehmite, with active groups in its structure [2], making it an excellent adsorbent material. In this work, pseudoboehmite was prepared by using the sol-gel process for being used as an excipient. The incorporation of pseudoboehmite in glucantime® was performed in the processing of tablets. Both pseudoboehmite and the tablets were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) using secondary electron detector and EDS detector. The release profile was obtained by UV/Vis spectroscopy for in vitro simulation. No reaction between the drug and the excipient was observed.