Exploring the potential of anti-inflammatory activity of berberine chloride-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles in carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model

Berberine is a traditional Chinese medicine that has excellent potential for anti-inflammatory activity. However, due to its poor penetration into the skin, its applicability via topical administration is restricted. Also, due to the high hydrophilicity of BCS class III drugs such as Berberine chloride (BBR), loading such drugs into lipid-based drug delivery systems is challenging. It is also difficult to achieve a sustained drug release for such drugs. Mobil Crystalline Materials (MCM-41) is an extensively employed mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSNs) due to their high surface area, tuneability, and exceptional stability. In this study, berberine chloride was loaded into the synthesized MSNs having high surface area and pore volume to understand the drug loading and drug release kinetics from MSNs. Further, the anti-inflammatory efficacy of BBR-MSNs was evaluated on animal models. The MSNs fabricated using the sol-gel method exhibited characteristic type IV adsorption-desorption isotherm, confirming the material's mesoporous nature and having spherical morphological characteristics. The hemolysis study proved that the MCM 41 MSNs were safe and hemocompatible. Finally, the in vivo anti-inflammatory study of carrageenan-induced rat paw edema proved the superiority of BBR-MSN over plain BBR in terms of maximum inhibition (%) of rat paw edema.