Dynamic nitric oxide/drug codelivery system based on polyrotaxane architecture for effective treatment of Candida albicans infection

The low permeability of antifungal agents to fungal biofilms, which allows the continued survival of the fungus inside, is a key issue that makes fungal infections difficult to cure. Inspired by the unique dynamic molecule motion properties of the polyrotaxane (PR) nanomedicine, herein, a dynamic delivery system Clo@mPRP/NONOate was fabricated by co-loading nitric oxide (NO) and the antifungal drug clotri-mazole (Clo) onto the alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CD) PR modified mesoporous polydopamine (mPDA) nanoparticles, in which pentaethylenehexamine (PEHA) was grafted to alpha-CDs. The cationic alpha-CDs endowed this dynamic NO/Clo codelivery system with the ability to effectively attach to fungal biofilms through electrostatic interaction, while the introduction of PRs with flexible molecule motion (slide and rotation of CDs) enhanced the permeability of nanoparticles to biofilms. Meanwhile, NO could effectively inhibit the formation of fungal hyphae, showing an dissipating effect on mature biofilms, and could be further combined with Clo to completely eradicate fungi inside the biofilms. In addition, the dynamic system Clo@mPRP/NONOate could efficiently and synergistically eliminate planktonic Candida albicans ( C. albicans) in a safe and no toxic side effect manner, and effectively cured C. albicans-induced vaginal infection in mice. Therefore, this dynamic NO/Clo codelivery system provided an effective solution to the clinical treatment of C. albicans-induced vaginal infection, and the application prospect could even be extended to other microbial infectious diseases.

Automated summary

In this study, a dynamic delivery system Clo@mPRP/NONOate was developed, which effectively attached to fungal biofilms through electrostatic interaction and enhanced the permeability of nanoparticles to the biofilms by introducing polyrotaxane. This system could inhibit the formation of fungal hyphae and eradicate fungi inside the biofilms by combining nitric oxide and clotrimazole. Additionally, it could safely and effectively eliminate planktonic Candida albicans and treat C. albicans-induced vaginal infection.