This invention relates to biologically active microbicidal compositions for cleaning and disinfecting the nasal and sinus tract of the upper respiratory system.
During normal breathing, environmental dust, mold, fungi, viruses, bacteria, pollens, chemical pollutants and other particulate matter are deposited in the nasal and sinus cavities. The inhaled particles can develop into infections, allergies and other maladies associated with the respiratory system.
Using a microbicidal composition to clean and disinfect the system with a nasal spray or inhaler offers early mediation and protection against the risk of subsequent onset of infections and other clinical manifestations associated with the inhaled matter.
Nasal inhalers or sprays have been used for mitigating allergic conditions, instilling antihistamines, and delivering mentholated sinus pain medications. Salt solutions also have been used for cleaning nasal and sinus cavities. Most salt solutions do not possess the microbicidal efficacy needed to be useful against infectious agents. Recently, vaccines have been instilled by the nasal route for immunizing purpose. However these remedies are used once the detrimental manifestations of inhaled matter have taken place. These remedies may come too late to thwart the harmful clinical process once underway. Early intervention is more economical for prevention of infections and allergic conditions by removing the causative agents either by cleaning or in the case of microbial agents by disinfecting. The use of antibiotics in the nasal microbicidal compositions is avoided due to the danger of developing allergies to the antibiotics and inciting microbial resistance to the antibiotic in the resident microbial population of the nasal and sinus cavities. Other antimicrobial agents such as alcohols, quaternary ammonium compounds, hydrogen peroxide, phenols can be considered toxic in nasal spray or inhalers.
The present invention is based on the combined cleaning and microbicidal properties of ingredients in the compositions considered food additives or Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). With food additives and/or GRAS ingredients, the disclosed nasal spray or inhaler will be safe and non-toxic for cleaning and disinfecting the nasal and sinus cavities of the upper respiratory tract.
The present invention teaches the preparation of a safe cleaning and microbicidal composition without the use of compounds that are toxic, corrosive or harmful. The present invention advances the art by introducing, in one aspect, a novel biologically active cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing composition that is economical, useful for preventing respiratory associated infections and allergies in everyday life.
The present invention combines the broad-spectrum microbicidal or germ killing properties of food additive anionic surface-active agents and those of compounds that are Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) at pH values at or below 7.0. The anionic surface-active agents incorporated in the present invention serve both as cleaning agents as well as microbicidal agents. The anionic surface-active agents are commonly used in cleaning compositions. At low pH values, these surface-active agents are also used for the preparation of sanitizers or disinfecting solutions. For use in a nasal cleaning and disinfecting spray, the anionic surface-active agent must be present in an optimum amount.
Preferably, the invention has a concentration of anionic surface-active agents at low pH with optimum microbicidal properties. Medicinal emollients such as aloe vera extract may be incorporated in the solution/cream without the loss of its microbicidal properties when the products are designed for use on the sinus and nasal mucosa. Other polymeric compounds (gums) and optional emollients that are stable at lower pH but do not neutralize the microbicidal properties can also be incorporated. The gums and polymeric ingredients can slowly release the ingredients and prolong the disinfecting activity of the compositions in the nasal and sinus cavities.
In use, the inventive compositions also eliminate the use of additional antimicrobial agents while delivering cleaning and microbicidal properties. Thus the present invention advances the art of preparing biologically active nasal and sinus cleaning and disinfecting compositions without the extra cost of additional ingredients. It also offers additional safety measures by eliminating the use of undesirable chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, iodine, quarternary ammonium compounds and phenols.
The proposed biologically active cleaning and disinfecting nasal spray compositions incorporate enhanced microbicidal properties of either anionic surface-active agents or that of a mixture of organic acids at an acidic pH at or below neutrality. The FDA in the 21 Code of Federal Regulation lists these ingredients as either food additives or GRAS. The nasal route is used to deliver the biologically active cleaning and disinfecting solution by spray, mist, or as simply applying as a nostril cream.
In accordance with the invention, there is provided a class of chemical agents that can be used to prepare biologically active antimicrobial, sanitizing and/or disinfecting solutions or creams for cleaning nasal and/or sinus passages, as well as disinfecting nasal and/or sinus cavities of inhaled pollens, dust and chemical pollution particles, viruses, molds, fungi, bacteria and other allergic and infectious agents. The preparations can also be used to clean and disinfect other inanimate surfaces.
The biologically active composition may include other compatible ingredients, which do not reduce or interfere with the cleaning and disinfecting properties. The composition may additionally carry an emollient, a cooling agent, antioxidants, natural or synthetic medicinal ingredients, fragrances, vitamins, and moisturizing agents.
The biologically active sanitizing liquid spray/inhaler composition is based on (a) cleaning, surface active properties of anionic or surface active agent or agents, (b) microbicidal properties of either anionic surface active agent under acidic conditions or a mixture of organic acids, (b) the organic/inorganic acids as acidifying agents or their mixture as microbicidal agents (c) water or suitable solubilizing agent such nontoxic alcohols, glycols or a mixture. Additional ingredients can be incorporated to fortify the microbicidal properties these include tuberculocidal and cysticidal activites of esters of fatty acids; and/or (e) fungicidal properties of benzoic acid and its salts or esters.
The anionic surface-active agent is selected from either free acid or salt forms the following classes compounds:
The anionic agent used in the nasal and sinus cleaning and disinfecting composition is preferably sodium dodecyl sulfate, sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate, sodium decyl lactylate, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, and sodium alpha-olefin sulfonate, and a mixture thereof. The concentration of anionic agents/agents preferably is between 0.0010% w/v to 15.0% w/v. As used herein, a 1% solution would have 1 gram of soute dissolved in a final volume of 100 milliliters of solution. In this disclosure, such units are labeled as weight/volume (w/v) percentage solution.
The acidifying agent is used to lower the pH below 7.0, preferably at or around pH 3.0. The acidifying agent used to lower the pH must be compatible with the anionic surface-active agent. The acidifying agent is one or more of adipic acid, ascorbic acid, citric acid, dehydroacetic acid, eryghorbic acid, fumaric acid, glutaric acid, gluconic acid, hyaluronic acid, hydroxyacetic acid, lactic acid, malic acid, succinic acid, sebacic acid, carboxylic acid polymers, homo- or hetero-polymerized carboxylic acid such as poly lactic acid or poly lactic-glycolic acid; or mixtures thereof.
The preferred acidifying agent is one or more selected from citric acid, benzoic acid, sorbic acid, adipic acid, or lactic acid or a mixture thereof use at concentrations of 0.01% w/v to 10% w/v.
The solubilizing agents can be selected water and/or non-toxic alcohols and glycols. The preferred solubilizer used is deionized or distilled water to complete 100% w/v of the composition.
The composition optionally contains sodium chloride at 0.5% w/v to 5% w/v. The other optional ingredients could include color and fragrances. The emollient agent used is the powdered extract of aloe vera used at concentrations between 0.05% w/v to 2% w/v.
The cleaning and disinfecting solution optionally contains natural antimicrobial and medicinal herbs and their ingredients, extracts and/or oils and vitamins such as A, C, D and E, tea tree oil fatty alcohols, fatty alcohol esters, sphingolipids, thyme, menthol, giner, turmeric, eugenol, rosemary, eucalyptol, thymol, coriander, fenugreek, tulsi, basil, lemongrass alone or mixture thereof at concentrations of 0.01% w/v to 5.0% w/v.
The cleaning and disinfecting solution optionally contains antiviral agents such as derivatives or analogs of n-aceryl neuraminic acid, Amantadine, Arbidol, Oseltamivir, Peramiivir, Rimantadine, Zanamivir, Abacavir, Didanosine, Emtricitabine, Lamivudine, Stavudine, Zalcitabine, Zidovudine, Tenofovir, Efavirenz, Delavirdine, Nevirapine, Loviride Amprenavir, Atazanavir, Darunavir, Fosamprenavir, Indinavir, Lopinavir, Nelfinavir, Ritonavir, Saquinavir, Tipranavir, Enfuvirtide, Adefovir, Fomivirsen, Imiquimod, Inosine, Interferon, Podophyllotoxin, Ribavirin, Viramidine, alone or a mixture thereof at concentrations of 0.0001% w/v to 5.0% w/v.
The cleaning and disinfecting solution optionally contains decongestant such as Ephedrine, Oxymetazoline, Phenylephrine, Pseudoephedrine, Tramazoline, Xylometazoline alone or mixture thereof at concentrations of 0.0001% w/v to 5.0% w/v.
The cleaning and disinfecting composition optionally contains antihistaminic and antiallergic compounds to control allergic conditions.
The cleaning and disinfecting composition for nasal and sinus cavities is to be prepared either as solution spray for instillation of as a cream for coating nostrils prepared using thickening and solidifying agents.
The Nasal And Sinus Cleaning And Disinfecting Compositions And Their Efficacy
The examples in Table 1 show the preparation of wipe sanitizers using anionic surface-active agent and an acidifying agent. The compositions are prepared to a final 100% w/v with deionized water.
To ascertain the sanitizing efficacy and microbicidal spectrum against bacteria, three sanitizers were first evaluated by the sanitizer and germicidal detergent test specified by the Association of Analytical Chemists (A.O.A.C.), 1984, using Escherichia coli ATCC 11229 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCCC 6538. The bacterial cultures were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), (Bethesda, Md.). Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus are used to represent both gram-negative and gram-positive bacterial classes. This test is used by the US EPA to determine compliance for a product to be used as a sanitizing agent. A product that reduces population density of both types of bacteria in 30 seconds by 99.999% satisfies the requirement as a sanitizing agent. Fifty ppm hypochlorite meets the criterion of a sanitizer in this test against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and was used as a positive control.
The efficacy of the sanitizers in Examples 1, 2 and 3 was further evaluated with 50 of hypochlorite as controls against Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Aeromonas hydrophlia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa essentially by the modified detergent and germicidal sanitizer test of the A.O.A.0 (Lopes, 1986) as shown in Table 2. The sanitizers were tested against both natural isolates and the antibiotic resistant strains of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella typhimurium. Each of the antibiotic resistant strains was used separately as well as in a composite strain prepared by mixing equal numbers of five different antibiotic resistant strains of Listeria monocytogenes or those of Salmonella typhimurium, respectively.
The Nasal And Sinus Cleaning And Disinfecting Composition And Efficacy Against Bacteria
STAPH.
AUREUS
E. COLI
A.h. 7965
L.m. 7644
P.a. 10145
S.t. 7823
A.h. 7965
L.m. 7644
P.a. 10145
S.t. 7823
A.h. 7965
L.m. 7644
P.a. 10145
S.t. 7823
A.h. 7965
L.m. 7644
P.a. 10145
S.t. 7823
A.h. = Aeromonas hydrophila, L.m. = Listeria monocytogenes, P.a. = Pseudomonas aeruginosa, S.t. = Salmonella typhimurium.
Tuberculocidal Activity Of The Cleaning And Disinfecting Composition
To be more useful in environment where mycobacteria might be present, the nasal and sinus cleaning and disinfecting composition can also be prepared with tuberculocidal activity. Decyl lactylate was incorporated in the sanitizing and microbicidal wipe composition to impart tuberculocidal activity. An aqueous solution of 300 ppm of decyl lactylate and 8800 ppm of lactic acid (pH≦3.0) exhibited higher tuberculocidal activity than 100 ppm of hypochlorite when examined essentially by the AOAC germicidal and detergent sanitizer test (Table 2). The tests were carried out in 500 ppm of hard water prepared according to the AOAC procedure (AOAC, 1990). The neutralizing solution used consisted of lecithin with polysorbate 80 prepared in phosphate buffer pH 7.2. In case of hypochlorite 0.1 ml of 10% thiosulfate was added to each tube of the neutralizer solution.
The culture was prepared according to the AOAC procedure for testing tuberculocidal activity of disinfectants (AOAC, 1990). Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37 Ra was maintained on Middlebrook 7H9 agar consisting of 4.7 g Middlebrook 7H9 broth (Difco), 2 ml of glycerol (Sigma) and 15 g Bacto-Agar in 900 ml of deionized water and 100 ml of Middlebrook ADC enrichment (Difco). The same medium was used for surface plating during the test. To provide aerobic conditions for Mycobacterium tuberculosis surface plating was used on pre-poured plates. Pre-poured plates were dried by storing at room temperature for one week prior to use. The culture from a 20-day-old slant was inoculated into modified Proskauer-Beck broth and incubated undisturbed at 37° C. for 25 days. The culture from a single tube was homogenized to a smooth suspension free of visible clumps with 1 ml of 0.1% Tween 80 in 0.9% NaCl. The culture was diluted to give 20% transmission at 650 nm and used in the test.
A germicidal and detergent sanitizer test (AOAC, 1990) was essentially employed for evaluating tuberculocidal of decyl lactylate. Ninety-nine ml of the test sanitizer solution contained 300 ppm of decyl lactylate and 8800 ppm of lactic acid. The test was carried out by rapidly mixing 1 ml of the test suspension into 99 ml of the sanitizer solution. After contact period of 30 seconds, 60 seconds, and 5 minutes, one ml of the test mixture was removed and added to 9 ml of the neutralizer. Clorox at 100 ppm was used as positive control. One ml of the neutralized test mixture was plated on Middlebrook 7H9 agar. The culture was diluted tenfold with 0.02% Tween 80 and plated to estimated the number of bacteria used in the test. The plates were replaced in the original plastic plate bags, which were sealed with adhesive tape to prevent drying and incubated at 37°2 C. for three weeks. The colonies were counted and reduction in colony count compared to controls was used to calculate efficacy of the sanitizers.
The examples how microbiciddal efficacy of sanitizing wipe compositions against gram positive, gram negative as well as tuberculosis bacteria. The tests show that the sanitizing composition has a broad-spectrum lethal activity against microorganisms. Thus the lethal activity of the nasal and sinus cleaning and disinfecting composition can be used to disinfect mucosal surfaces contaminated with bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses.
The examples presented above are merely illustrative and should not be read as limiting the scope of the invention as it is defined in the appended claims.
While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation, and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/764,950 filed Jun. 19, 2007, which is a non-provisional of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/841,962 filed Sep. 5, 2006, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60841962 | Sep 2006 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11764950 | Jun 2007 | US |
Child | 13098994 | US |