Effect of free versus liposomal-complexed pentamidine isethionate on biological characteristics of Acanthamoeba castellanii in vitro Siddiqui, Ruqaiyyah and Syed, Abdul and Tomas, Salvador and Prieto-Garcia, Jose and Khan, Naveed Ahmed,, 58, 327-330 (2009), doi = https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.006494-0, publicationName = Microbiology Society, issn = 0022-2615, abstract= Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic protozoan pathogen that can cause blinding keratitis and a rare but fatal encephalitis involving the central nervous system with a very poor prognosis. This is due to limited availability of effective anti-acanthamoebic drugs. Here, we tested whether the use of liposomes can improve the potency of pentamidine isethionate, an anti-amoebic compound. The liposomes consisted of l-α-phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol or ergosterol in a molar ratio of 1 : 5. Pentamidine isethionate was incorporated to achieve a final drug to lipid ratio of 1 : 5. At a drug concentration of 10 μg ml−1, the liposomal drug was >12 times more effective than the free drug at preventing Acanthamoeba binding to human cells and significantly more effective in reducing parasite-mediated human cell cytopathogenicity, compared with the drug alone. Both the free and liposomal drug blocked Acanthamoeba encystation., language=, type=