In-vitro and In-silico Examinations on Baicalein-loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticles for Neurodegeneration

Background: In the current scenario, most of the population affected by neurogenerative disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, etc., exist among the 10% population 65 years of age group. Neurodegenerative diseases are characterised as chronic and progressive disorders that occur due to the degeneration of neurons. Baicalein is a flavonoid glycoside derived from the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis. Earlier research suggested that it could be used to treat neurodegenerative illnesses. Baicalein, which was selected for the current study, was designed into a solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) formulation. The SLNs have low permeability across BBB and are delivered by the non-invasive route, i.e., through nasal delivery. The In-silico docking studies were performed to examine and compare the binding affinity of Baicalein to already established drugs on the two most viable targets of Alzheimer's disease, i.e., Beta- secretase and Acetylcholinesterase. Objectives: The current work is to formulate and evaluate the Baicalein-loaded SLN for neurodegenerative disorders via a non-invasive route. Methods: Baicalein loaded SLN was developed by solvent emulsification diffusion method, and formulation is characterised by using different parameters such as particle size analysis, zeta potential, scanning electron microscope, transverse electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, Differential scanning calorimetric, Fourier transforms -infrared radiations, drug entrapment, in-vitro drug release and in-silico docking studies. Results: The particle size of Baicalein-loaded SLN was 755.2 ± 0.48 nm, the Polydispersity index was 0.06, and the zeta potential was -32.5 ± 0.36 mV. The drug entrapment and loading efficiency of the optimised formulation were found to be 94% ± 0.653 and 18.2% ± 0.553, respectively. Optimised formulation shows 84.6% ± 0.3% of drug release within 30 minutes, which demonstrates the sustained release of the drug. Conclusion: Baicalein-loaded SLN is formulated and evaluated for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. SLN is an approach to overcome the challenge of bypassing the BBB by administering the drug via an intranasal route. Hence, when analysed together with the results of Baicalein-loaded SLN and in-silico studies, it was correlated that Baicalein proved to have a targeted moiety for neurodegeneration.