Ebrahim Saadat - Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
Rassoul Dinarvand - Medical Nanotechnology Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Pedram Ebrahimnejad - Departmentof Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

In this study, nystatin liposomal formulation was prepared and characterized. The physicochemical properties of formulations including vesicle size, drug entrapment stability and in vitro release were studied. The highest entrapment efficiency of nystatin into liposomes was obtained about ۷۰% when cholesterol (CHO) was added to the formulations prepared with dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine. In addition, the drug entrapment efficiency was decreased when distearoylphosphatidylcholine was used   but it was improved by addition of CHO and hydration   with ۹% sucrose solution. Liposomes with uniform size distribution and average size of ۱۰۰ nm were produced.  Long term stability study indicated that the lyophilized liposomal nystatin was physically stable for at least ۶ months at ۴ °C. In vitro anti-fungal activity of liposomal nystatin was found to be more effective than free nystatin against Candida albicans.

Liposome, lyophilization, antifungal activity, nystatin, nanotechnology