Development and Evaluation of Asiatic Acid Nanoparticles: for Brain Specific Drug Delivery

Abstract

The least efficacy of most of the active pharmaceutical drugs in the brain is attributed to the blood–brain barrier (BBB), which represents insurmountable obstacle for the effective management of majority of CNS disorders. The present research is planned with the objective to develop novel polymeric bovine serum albumin nanoparticles coupled with natural tripeptide i.e. glutathione to enhance drug delivery to brain. To evaluate the brain targeting efficiency of the glutathione conjugated nanoparticles, Asiatic acid was explored as model compound. The developed particle of Asiatic acid were estimated by simple HPLC Method. Asiatic acid being a triterpene has great limitation for its bioavaibility in brain, further there is a great challenge in estimation of asiatic acid in a biological system, because of its weak chromophore. For estimation of Asiatic acid in blood plasma and biological system, a novel pre derivatization HPLC method was developed using EDAC as coupling agent & p-toludine as a derivatization agent.Biodistribution pattern and brain targeting potential of optimized glutathione conjugated BSA nanocarriers was determined using wistar rat as an animal model in comparison to non-conjugated BSA nanocarriers and asiatic acid solution. The results showed significant increase in Asiatic acid uptake in brain with glutathione conjugated BSA nanoparticles as compared to Asiatic acid solution. The present investigations demonstrated that glutathione can serve as a potential ligand for brain drug delivery, which was observed with glutathione coupled BSA nanoparticles resulted into enhanced delivery of Asiatic acid