European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Fungal infections have grown as a threat to the health of human beings over the past few years. In healthy state the human body houses many commensal fungalspecies, Candida albicans being one of them. In human beings who are healthy, the fungus is present in the body without causing any disease. However, the same fungus has potential to proliferate and produce a disease under diverse conditions. As per reports, presence of Candida species accounts for the most prevalent infection in surgical patients who are critically ill. A number of therapeutics have been used for treating candidal infections. Among them, Fluconazole is reported to be effective. Fluconazole is available commercially either as tablets or for IV administration for the treatment of infections occurring by Candida infestation. However, both the dosage forms formulated suffer from certain disadvantages. In order to overcome their drawbacks, in the present study, Fluconazole loaded nanoemulsion based gel was formulated and its efficacy evaluated as an attractive alternative treatment option for Candida infections. In vitro efficacy of Fluconazole loaded nanoemulgel, placebo formulation,  fluconazole gel and control (pure fluconazole) against Candida albicans (MTCC NO: 227) was compared using cup-plate method microbiological assay method. The nanoemulgel was formulated by addition of carbopol 934P (1% w/w) in optimized Fluconazole loaded nanoemulsion.A significantly higher (p≤0.05)zone of inhibition was observed for Fluconazole nanoemulgel (35±1.1 mm) in comparison to fluconazole gel (15±1.2 mm), placebo formulation (9±1.6 mm) and control (9.8±1.2 mm) after 24 hours. Further, after 72 hours, the Fluconazole nanoemulgel exhibited zone of inhibition (34.9± 1.6 mm) while the other three formulations (fluconazole gel, placebo formulation and pure fluconazole) did not exhibit any zone of inhibition.It was concluded that Fluconazole loaded nanoemulgel formulation due to its nanometricsize was effective in inhibiting the growth of Candida albicans more efficiently as compared to all the other formulations evaluated.