Oral delivery of ursolic acid-loaded nanostructured lipid carrier coated with chitosan oligosaccharides: Development, characterization, in vitro and in vivo assessment for the therapy of leishmaniasis.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a life-threatening disease caused by Leishmania donovani due to uncontrolled parasitisation of liver, spleen, and bone marrow. Ursolic acid (UA), a promising anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-diabetic drug used successfully for treatment of ailments. Development of new delivery system is extremely urgent for UA with better efficacy and fewer side effects. The aim of present research work was to formulate and evaluate the potential anti-leishmanial activity of UA loaded N-octyl-chitosan surface decorated nanostructured lipid carrier system (UA-NLC) for delivery to the macrophages for VL. UA-NLC were prepared and characterized for shape, size, fourier transforms scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmittance electron microscopy (TEM), entrapment efficiency and in vitro drug release. The results indicate that the formulated UA-NLC had nano size range (103.7±2.8nm to 143.0±3.8nm) with high drug loading capacity (12.05±0.54%) and entrapment efficiency (88.63±2.7%). Ex vivo drug uptake by macrophage was also evaluated. The UA-NLC was more effective against AG83 wild type (12 fold), SSG-R (4 fold), PMM-R (4 fold) and GE1 field isolated (3 fold) cellular amastigotes than its free form. In vivo study showed orally effective UA-NLC could suppress the parasite burden to 98.75%.