Designing a Silymarin Nanopercolating System Using CME@ZIF-8: An Approach to Hepatic Injuries

Hui Yu; Muhammad Saqib Saif; Murtaza Hasan; Ayesha Zafar; Xi Zhao; Muhammad Waqas; Tuba Tariq; Huang Xue; Riaz Hussain

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c08494

Designing a Silymarin Nanopercolating System Using CME@ZIF-8: An Approach to Hepatic Injuries

ACS Omega. 2023 Dec 7;8(50):48535-48548. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c08494. eCollection 2023 Dec 19.

Authors

Hui Yu¹, Muhammad Saqib Saif², Murtaza Hasan^{3

4}, Ayesha Zafar⁵, Xi Zhao⁶, Muhammad Waqas³, Tuba Tariq², Huang Xue⁴, Riaz Hussain⁷

Affiliations

¹ College of Science, Beihua University, Jilin 132013, P. R. China.
² Faculty of Chemical and Biological Science, Department of Biochemistry, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.
³ Faculty of Chemical and Biological Science, Department of Biotechnology, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou 510225, P. R. China.
⁵ School of Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Melbourne 3001, Australia.
⁶ Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, P. R. China.
⁷ Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Department of Pathology, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.

Abstract

It is commonly known that silymarin, a phytoconstituent obtained from the Silybum marianum plant, has hepatoprotective and antioxidative properties. However, its low oral bioavailability and poor water solubility negatively impact its therapeutic efficacy. The goal of the present study was to determine the efficiency of the Cordia myxa extract-based synthesized zeolitic imidazole metal-organic framework (CME@ZIF-8 MOF) for increasing silymarin's bioavailability. A coprecipitation technique was used to synthesize the CME@ZIF-8 and polyethylene glycol-coated silymarin-loaded MOFs (PEG-Sily@CME@ZIF-8) and a complete factorial design was used to optimize them. The crystalline size of CME@ZIF-8 was 14.7 nm and the size of PEG-Sily@CME@ZIF-8 was 17.39 nm. The loading percentage of the silymarin drug in CME@ZIF-8 was 33.5%. The optimized formulations were then characterized by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform IR spectroscopy, surface morphology, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and drug release in an in vitro medium. Additionally, a rat model was used to investigate the optimized formulation's in vivo hepatoprotective effectiveness. The synthesized silymarin-loaded CME@ZIF-8 MOFs were distinct particles with a porous, spongelike shape and a diameter of (size) nm. Furthermore, the designed silymarin-loaded PEG-Sily@CME@ZIF-8 MOF formulation exhibited considerable silymarin release from the synthesized formula in dissolution investigations. The in vivo evaluation studies demonstrated that the prepared PEG-Sily@CME@ZIF-8 MOFs effectively exhibited a hepatoprotective effect in comparison with free silymarin in a CCl4-based induced-hepatotoxicity rat model via ameliorating the normal antioxidant enzyme levels and restoring the cellular abnormalities produced by CCl4 toxication. In combination, biologically produced CME@ZIF-8 may promise to be a viable biologically based nanocarrier that can enhance the loading and release of silymarin medication, which has low solubility in water.