ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nanotechnol.
Sec. Biomedical Nanotechnology
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnano.2025.1599272
Enhanced anti-infective activities of sinapic acid through nebulization of lyophilized protransferosomes
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
- 2Faculty of Pharmacy, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Beni Suef, Egypt
- 3School of Health & Life Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom
- 4Department of Pharmacognosy, Nahda University, Beni Suef, Beni Suef, Egypt
- 5School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom
- 6Department of Pharmaceutics, Nahda University, Beni Suef, Beni Suef, Egypt
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Recently, COVID-19 is a contagious illness caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 that has been a major cause of death globally, even with effective vaccinations. Additionally, multidrug-resistant bacterial and fungal pathogens are a real threat to many health settings.Sinapic acid (SA), isolated from different plants or marine algae, has been reported to have antioxidant, antibacterial, and antiviral properties. Although there is evidence that SA has anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity, it is poorly absorbed when taken orally due to its intestinal metabolism.The current study aimed to improve SA's activity against SARS-CoV-2, different bacterial and fungal pathogens, bioavailability, and targeting using a nebulized, freeze-dried, transferosomal formulation. A response-surface experimental study using phospholipid, cholesterol, and surfactants was employed to develop transferosomes. Various formulae were prepared and characterized for entrapment efficiency (EE), release, and size to select the optimized formula. It was then lyophilized into a powder to be evaluated in vivo for its pharmacokinetic properties. SA exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activity, with SAprotransferosomes showing enhanced effectiveness compared to pure SA and approaching the efficacy of positive controls. Notably, SA-protransferosomes demonstrated activity comparable to ciprofloxacin against E. faecalis and S. mutans and matched nystatin in effectiveness against C. albicans and A. niger. The optimized formula significantly enhanced the SARS-CoV-2 activity (IC50 = 0.016±0.008 μg/mL), Cmax by 2.27 times, and AUC (0-∞) by 5.4 times, as compared to the pure SA. As a result, the use of nebulized SA-transferosomes can be regarded as a safe and efficient strategy in different infections.
Keywords: Sinapic acid, SARS-CoV-2, Antibacterial, Antifungal, Transferosomes, Nebulizer
Received: 24 Mar 2025; Accepted: 08 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alhadrami, Gamal, Amaeze, Sayed, Rateb and Naguib. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mostafa Rateb, School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom
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