Micropartículas poliméricas contendo fármacos antivirais: desenvolvimento, caracterização físico-química, avaliação do perfil de liberação in vitro e da atividade antiviral

Abstract

The herpes simplex virus (HSV), also known as human herpes virus, infects humans causing mainly genital and labial ulcerations. Among the drugs available for the treatment of HSV infection the acyclovir (ACV) is an effective antiviral drug. However this drug presents limitations in its use due to the short half-life and low water solubility. Curcumin (CUR) has demonstrated several therapeutic activities, including antiviral activity, but the oral administration of this natural compound is also compromised by low solubility. The polymeric microparticles (MP) are a pharmacotechnical approach that modifies the pharmacokinetics of the compounds and offers a possibility to overcome the difficulties of the therapeutic use. In view of this, this study aimed to develop MPs by spray drying method composed of HPMC and Eudragit® RS100 as polymeric materials, and mannitol as drying material. The results showed a yield around 50% for all developed formulations and a better technological flow rate for the particles without mannitol. The assay showed levels 82-99 and 81% to 94%, to ACV and CUR, respectively. The particle size analysis showed microparticles micrometric size between 8.7 and 15.3 micrometers. Morphological analysis showed the spherical shape and confirmed the results of size analysis. Spectroscopy in the infrared showed an overlap of the spectra obtained by the individual components indicating good compatibility between the materials. The in vitro release profile observed that the PMs were able to control the release and improved the solubility of the compounds, especially when composed of HPMC. Besides, an in vitro preliminary assessment of antiviral activity demonstrated that the combination of ACV and CUR presented a synergistic effect against BoVH-1 virus, and the MPs were able to enhance this effect. The MPs showed to be promising systems for the oral administration of ACV and CUR and could be an improved alternative treatment for viral herpes.