Comparison of Virosome vs. Liposome as drug delivery vehicle using HepG2 and CaCo2 cell lines.

AIM: The present work involves encapsulation of herbal drug nanocurcumin into the virosomes and compared with a liposome in terms of their in vitro anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-migratory efficacy. METHODS: The anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-migratory efficacy of virosome and liposome were compared in HepG2 and CaCo2 cells by using MTT, Nitric oxide scavenging, and Wound healing assay, respectively. RESULTS: Size of the optimised NC-Virosome and NC-Liposome was 70.06 ± 1.63 and 265.80 ± 1.64 nm, respectively. The prepared NC-Virosome can be stored at -4 °C up to six months. The drug encapsulation efficiency of NC-Virosome and NC-Liposome was found to be 84.66 ± 1.67 and 62.15 ± 1.75% (w/w). The evaluated minimum inhibitory concentration (IC50 value) for NC-Virosome was 102.7 µg/ml and 108.1 µg/ml, while NC-Liposome showed 129.2 µg/ml and 160.1 µg/ml for HepG2 and CaCo2 cells, respectively. Morphological examination depicts detachment of the cells from substratum after exposure to NC-Virosome for 48 h. CONCLUSION: The prepared NC-Virosome provides remarkable in vitro efficacy in both the cell lines with site-specific drug-targeting potential as compared to the liposome, results proved its potential as a drug delivery vehicle for future therapy with reduced toxicity.

Preparation and characterization of nanocurcumin based hybrid virosomes as a drug delivery vehicle with enhanced anticancerous activity and reduced toxicity.

The present study represents a formulation of nanocurcumin based hybrid virosomes (NC-virosome) to deliver drugs at targeted sites. Curcumin is a bioactive component derived from Curcuma longa and well-known for its medicinal property, but it exhibits poor solubility and rapid metabolism, which led to low bioavailability and hence limits its applications. Nanocurcumin was prepared to increase the aqueous solubility and to overcome all the limitations associated with curcumin. Influenza virosomes were prepared by solubilization of the viral membrane with 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphocholine (DSPC). During membrane reconstitution, the hydrophilic nanocurcumin was added to the solvent system, followed by overnight dialysis to obtain NC-virosomes. The same was characterized using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), MTT assay was used to evaluate it's in vitro-cytotoxicity using MDA-MB231 and Mesenchyme stem cells (MSCs). The results showed NC-virosomes has spherical morphology with size ranging between 60 and 90 nm. It showed 82.6% drug encapsulation efficiency. The viability of MDA-MB231 cells was significantly inhibited by NC-virosome in a concentration-dependent manner at a specific time. The IC50 for nanocurcumin and NC-virosome was 79.49 and 54.23 µg/ml, respectively. The site-specific drug-targeting, high efficacy and non- toxicity of NC-virosomes proves its future potential as drug delivery vehicles.