Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a chronic debilitating disease prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. Annually, it is approximated the occurrence of 0.2 to 0.4 million novel cases of the disease worldwide. The cast film method was used to prepared cationic and mannosylated liposomes. The surface of the Amphotericin B (Amp B)-bearing cationic multilamellar liposomes was covalently coupled with p-aminophenyl-α-D-mannoside using glutaraldehyde as a coupling agent, which was proved by agglutination of the vesicles with concanavalin A. The prepared liposomes were characterized for shape, size, % drug entrapment, vesicle count, zeta potential and in vitro drug release. Vesicle sizes of cationic and mannosylated liposomes were establish to be 2.71±0.12and 1.62±0.08μm, respectively. Zeta potential of cationic liposomes was higher (28.38 ± 0.3 mV), as compared to mannosylated liposomes (15.7 ± 0.8 mV). % drug release from cationic and mannose-coupled liposomes was established to be 45.7% and 41.9%, respectively, after 24 hrs. In the present work, cationic and mannosylated liposomes of Amp B were prepared, optimized and characterized for effectual organization of VL.
Keywords: Mannosylated liposomes, Amphotericin B, Leishmaniasis, % drug release.