Effect of Lipopeptide-Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles on Candida Albicans Adhesion and on the Growth of Leishmania Major

Abstract A strain B84 producing surfactin and bacillomycin D lipopeptides was identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. B84 lipopeptides were extracted by acid precipitation, identified by mass spectrometry and loaded onto chitosan nanoparticles by ionotropic gelation process. The lipopeptide / chitosan nanoparticles have an average size of 569 nm, a zeta potential range of 38.8 mV and encapsulation efficiency (EE) of 85.58 %. The treatment of C. albicans cells with encapsulated lipopeptides showed an anti-adhesive activity of 81.17 % and a decreased effect of cell surface hydrophobicity « CSH » by 25.53%. An anti-leishmanial activity was also recorded with IC50 of 14.37 µg ml-1 and 22.45 µg mL-1 against L. major promastigote and amastigote forms, respectively. Cytotoxicity studies on human cells showed low cytotoxicity effect with HC50 value of 770 µg mL-1 towards human red blood cells and LC50 value of 234.56 µg mL-1 towards macrophage Raw 264.7 cell line. These lipopeptide / chitosan nanoparticles could be used as a potential delivery system of lipopeptides to improve both their anti-adhesive effect against C. albicans cells colonizing medical devices and their anti-infectious activity against leishmania.