Banca de DEFESA: JOCEMIRLLA MARTA CORREIA DA SILVA

OBTAINING NANOPARTICLES BASED ON METAL-ORGANIC STRUCTURES (MOFS) WITH DAPSONE FOR TREATMENT OF LEPROSY.

Dapsone, ZIF-8, MOFS, Controlled release system, Leprosy

Leprosy is an endemic disease in some countries, including Brazil. The current treatment, polychemotherapy, can be complex and cause adverse effects.  Nanotechnology emerges as an alternative to improve the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs, such as dapsone, used in the treatment of leprosy. Metal-organic structures, especially ZIF-8, are promising for the administration and controlled release of drugs. The objective of the work was to develop a nanostructured system based on ZIF-8 to load dapsone. The zeolitic imidazolate structure (ZIF-8) was synthesized at room temperature in an aqueous medium. DAP was loaded in situ into ZIF-8 nanoparticles during synthesis. Both ZIF-8 and DAP@ZIF-8 were characterized using various characterization tools. The structural integrity and phase purity of the DAP@ZIF-8 nanoparticles were obtained through the X-ray diffraction pattern corresponding to ZIF-8. TEM micrographs of pure ZIF-8 showed well-developed hexagonal nanocrystals and uniform distribution. The encapsulation of DAP in ZIF-8 resulted in a decrease in the average particle size and its zeta potential, preserving the hexagonal morphology. The encapsulation of DAP was confirmed by UV-Visible and FTIR spectroscopy studies, thus indicating the potential of ZIF-8 to be used as a carrier for controlled delivery of DAP. However, further investigations are necessary for the improvement of future applications using this system.