DEVELOPMENT OF ANTI-INFLAMMATORY PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATIONS BASED ON HSPT@ZIF-8
Inflammation, flavonoids, MOFs, pharmaceutical suspensions
Hesperetin is a product of secondary plant metabolism, classified as a flavonoid and has several activities reported in the literature as antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, neuroprotective, anticancer, chemopreventive and, most notably, anti-inflammatory. In order to be used as a drug, hesperetin needed to have its dissolution rate improved from the development of the modified release system HSPT@ZIF-8 using MOF ZIF-8 as carrier. This work aimed to conduct a literature review on the use of MOFs as pharmaceutical excipients and the development of a pharmaceutical formulation using the HSPT@ZIF-8 system with anti-inflammatory activity. Thus, a literature review was carried out using international databases (PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect and Web of Science) showing that MOFs are promising materials for biomedical application, including their use as drug carriers capable of modulating the release of pharmaceuticals. To initiate the development of the formulation, the acute in vivo oral toxicity of the HSPT@ZIF-8 system was evaluated. Then, aqueous-based pharmaceutical suspensions containing the HSPT@ZIF-8 system, isolated hesperetin and ZIF-8 as active principle were developed. The suspensions were submitted to organoleptic evaluation, hesperetin content, pH, viscosity, redispersability, morphological analysis by microscopy and also to the evaluation of anti-inflammatory activity through the in vivo model of paw edema induced by carrageenan. The pharmaceutical suspensions showed good quality parameters such as pleasant color, odor and taste, pH compatible with the stability of the active ingredient, being easily redispersible and without cake formation and with pseudoplastic rheological behavior already expected for this type of formulation. The oral acute toxicity test demonstrated that the HSPT@ZIF-8 system is safe under these conditions up to a maximum dosage of 2000mg/Kg. In the evaluation of the antiinflammatory activity in vivo, the anti-inflammatory activity expected by hesperetin was demonstrated, however, it was noted that it is independent of the dose. It was demonstrated that the HSPT@ZIF-8 system presented anti-inflammatory activity superior to that of isolated hesperetin, it was also demonstrated that the placement of the system in a pharmaceutical suspension did not alter its anti-inflammatory activity. Thus, this work showed that MOFs can be great alternatives to be used as pharmaceutical excipients in obtaining modified drug delivery systems. A pharmaceutical suspension containing the HSPT@ZIF-8 system as active ingredient was developed, which presented good quality parameters and anti-inflammatory activity superior to isolated hesperetin.