Evaluation of curcumin antimicrobial photodynamic therapy in conventional and photoactivated polymer micelles

Abstract

Curcumin (CUR) has been used as a photosensitizer (PS) in antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) for inactivation of microorganisms. However, the use of organic solvents to solubilize CUR is a limitation for its clinical use. Taking this restriction into consideration, drug delivery systems such as polymeric micelles have been used to improve the solubility of CUR. Most studies of CUR in micelles have been published for cancer treatment and the slow release of CUR from these systems limits its topical use as PS in aPDT. Thus, photoactivated nanoformulations represent an alternative to improve drug release from nanosystems and are very interesting for a topical application of aPDT, which would allow to reduce the incubation time of nanoformulation in the target tissue as well as a remote-temporal control of CUR release. The aim of this study will be to evaluate the efficacy of aPDT using CUR in micelles using photoactivated polymer and conventional Pluronic® F127 and P123 micelles as PS against planktonic cultures and monospecies biofilms of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. The micelles have already been synthesized and characterized previously, and their antimicrobial photodynamic action will now be evaluated. The effects of aPDT will be evaluated by metabolic activity (XTT assay). The data will be analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics with a significance level of 5%.