Table 3. . Comparison of uptake of amphotericin B from targeted (thiolated chitosan and mannose-anchored thiolated chitosan) nanocarriers, unmodified chitosan nanocarriers, AmBisome^® and native drug in uninfected macrophages.

Formulations	Uptake studies (μg AmB/106 cells)
	Uninfected macrophages	Sensitive strains-infected macrophages	Resistant strains-infected macrophages	p-value
AmB	0.4 ± 0.01	0.38 ± 0.02	0.04 ± 0.006	0.058x 0.0002y 0.0003z
AmBisome	1.1 ± 0.07	1.2 ± 0.08	0.3 ± 0.05	0.061x 0.007y 0.0073z
UC	6.5 ± 0.9	6.3 ± 0.7	2.9 ± 0.4	0.055x 0.0004y 0.0003z
TC	12.9 ± 2.3	11.5 ± 1.1	12.3 ± 2.2	0.056x 0.071y 0.069z
MTC	28.6 ± 1.4 †***,‡**,§*,¶*	27.9 ± 1.6 †***,‡**,§**,¶*	28.1 ± 1.7†***,‡**,§**,¶*	0.059x 0.063y 0.064z
Pretreatment with verapamil
AmB	0.39 ± 0.02	0.36 ± 0.03	0.084 ± 0.01	0.061x 0.003y 0.004z
AmBisome	1.2 ± 0.06	1.3 ± 0.09	0.76 ± 0.05	0.079x 0.009y 0.008z
UC	6.6 ± 0.8	6.2 ± 0.5	3.5 ± 0.9	0.062x 0.004y 0.003z

Both resistant and sensitive Leishmania donovani were used to infect macrophages. Data are expressed as three replicates in all tests, and the data are expressed as mean ± SD of three independent experiments. Statistically significant differences of MTC were determined in relation to AmB solution (^†), AmBisome (^‡), UC (^§) and TC (^¶) at significance levels of * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001. x = probability value between uninfected macrophage group and sensitive strain-infected macrophage group; y = probability value between uninfected macrophage group and resistant strain-infected macrophage group; z = probability value between sensitive strain-infected macrophage group and resistant strain-infected macrophage group.

AmB: Amphotericin B; MTC: Mannose-anchored thiolated chitosan; SD: Standard deviation; TC: Thiolated chitosan; UC: Unmodified chitosan.