Brain targeting of Baicalin and Salvianolic acid B combination by OX26 functionalized nanostructured lipid carriers

In order to deliver Salvianolic acid B (Sal B) and Baicalin (BA) to the brain tissue to repair neuron damage and improve cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), in our previous study, a nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) containing BA and Sal B, and modified by the transferrin receptor monoclonal antibody OX26 (OX26-BA/Sal B-NLC) was constructed. The present study is to evaluate its in vitro release behavior, in vitro and in vivo targeting ability, in vitro pharmacodynamics and brain pharmacokinetics. The results showed that the release mechanism of the formulation was in line with the Weibull model release equation. The in-vitro and in-vivo targeting ability study exhibited that OX26 modified formulations was obviously higher than that of non-modified and solution groups. The results of in vitro preliminary study to investigate the protective effect of OX26-BA/Sal B-NLC on oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion injured cells showed that it could decrease the injury. Furthermore, the results of brain microdialysis study showed that the OX26-modified preparation group could significantly increase the content of BA in the brain. In the solution group and the unmodified group, Sal B can only be detected at few time points, while OX26-modified BA/Sal B-NLC could be detected within 4 h. These results indicating that OX26-modified NLC can promote the brain delivery of Sal B and BA combination.