Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Nano-Medicine Research, Institute for Research and Medical Consultations (IRMC), Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, 31441, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. mnnmuhammad@iau.edu.sa
  • 3 Department of Medical Sciences & CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
  • 4 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 5 Faculty of Medicine, MAHSA University, Saujana Putra Campus, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 6 School of Pharmacy, Nottingham University Malaysia Campus, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 7 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. nissapat@gmail.com
Sci Rep, 2020 06 02;10(1):8954.
PMID: 32488154 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-65728-0

Abstract

Acanthamoeba, a genus that contains at least 24 species of free-living protozoa, is ubiquitous in nature. Successful treatment of Acanthamoeba infections is always very difficult and not always effective. More effective drugs must be developed, and medicinal plants may have a pivotal part in the future of drug discovery. Our research focused on investigating the in vitro anti- acanthamoebic potential of Leea indica and its constituent gallic acid in different concentrations. Water and butanol fractions exhibited significant amoebicidal activity against trophozoites and cysts. Gallic acid (100 µg/mL) revealed 83% inhibition of trophozoites and 69% inhibition of cysts. The butanol fraction induced apoptosis in trophozoites, which was observed using tunnel assay. The cytotoxicity of the fractions and gallic acid was investigated against MRC-5 and no adverse effects were observed. Gallic acid was successfully loaded within poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticles with 82.86% encapsulation efficiency, while gallic acid showed 98.24% in vitro release at 48 hours. Moreover, the gallic acid encapsulated in the PLGA nanoparticles exhibited 90% inhibition against trophozoites. In addition, gallic acid encapsulated nanoparticles showed reduced cytotoxicity towards MRC-5 compared to gallic acid, which evidenced that natural product nanoencapsulation in polymeric nanoparticles could play an important role in the delivery of natural products.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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