In vitro antimicrobial and cytotoxic evaluation of a PEG/soy lecithin nanosuspension as acetogenin carrier systems.

Acetogenins (ACGs) are bioactive compounds with antifungal, antibacterial, and cytotoxic activities; however, their poor water solubility limits their pharmaceutical applications. A polyethylene glycol/soy lecithin/ACGs nanosuspension (PEGSL-ACGs-NSps) was developed to evaluate antifungal (Candida spp.), antibacterial (bacterial pathogens), and cytotoxic activities (tumor or healthy cell lines) using microdilution and MTT assays. MIC and IC50 values were determined to compare the efficacy of PEGSL-ACGs-NSps and free ACGs. PEGSL-ACGs-NSps showed complete growth inhibition of C. glabrata and C. tropicalis within 5 h at 2.5-3.2 mg/mL, whereas free ACGs required 24-48 h. IC₅₀ values indicated higher antifungal potency for NSps (1.64-1.81 mg/mL) compared to free ACGs (1.94-2.27 mg/mL). Against E. coli and B. cenocepacia, both PEGSL-ACGs-NSps and free ACGs achieved complete inhibition at 3.2 mg/mL, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.18 to 1.01 mg/mL. In cytotoxicity assays, ACGs free and PEGSL-ACGs-NSps exhibited high activity against tumor cell lines, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 7.01 to 25.30 μg/mL and inhibition values of 81.97-100%. In contrast, NSps IC₅₀ (31.50 μg/mL) was higher in the HaCaT cells than free ACGs (6.05 μg/mL). Overall, PEGSL-ACGs-NSps improved the in vitro biological performance of acetogenins, suggesting their potential as nanosuspension-based delivery systems.