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Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and ResearchAn Official Publication of Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI)
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Investigation of Nanosponge Based Delivery of Rutin and Brucine for Cancer Therapy

1, 2, 1,3,4, 3,4, 5, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1

  1. 1Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Haryana, INDIA.
  2. 2Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Clinical Pharmacy, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, SAUDI ARABIA.
  3. 3The Biochemical Engineering Research and Process Development Centre (BERPDC), CSIR- Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh, INDIA.
  4. 4Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA.
  5. 5Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.

CORRESPONDENCE

Anroop B Nair

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Clinical Pharmacy, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, SAUDI ARABIA.

anair@kfu.edu.sa

Received: 09-06-2025; Revised: 18-08-2025; Accepted: 21-10-2025.

Volume 60, Issue 2s (Supplement) · pp. s550-s562 · 2026 · DOI: 10.5530/ijper.20263680

ABSTRACT

Background: Both rutin and brucine can suppress tumor growth mainly through the induction of apoptosis. This study aims to evaluate the potential of nanosponge based delivery to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of rutin and brucine combination against cancer.Materials and Methods: Rutin and brucine nanosponges were prepared separately by employing the quasi-emulsion solvent diffusion method. The formulations were examined for various pharmaceutical properties as well as antioxidant and cytotoxicity effects.Results: The prepared nanosponges resulted in higher drug encapsulation (81% and 88% for rutin and brucine, respectively). FTIR, DSC, and XRD confirm the successful entrapment of bioactives and amorphous dispersion without drug-excipient interactions. Scanning electron microscopy revealed spherical, non-aggregated particles with size range of 300-400 nm. In vitro release studies demonstrated sustained drug release from nanosponges compared to pure bioactives. The DPPH radical scavenging assay showed that combined delivery of nanosponges produced superior antioxidant activity, displaying a synergetic effect at lower concentrations (10-50 µg/mL). Notably, cytotoxic effect on HaCaT cell lines showed that the combination of delivery leads to ~4 fold improvement in potency with marked reduction in IC50 (20.66 µg/mL) than individual administration.Conclusion: Combination administration using developed nanosponges led to a notable rise in antioxidant activity as well as enhanced anticancer activity, suggesting that this could be a viable strategy for cancer therapy.

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    Sardana, P., Nair, A. B., Dalal, S., Bhattacharyya, M. S., Jacob, S., Morsy, M. A., Venugopala, K. N., Attimarad, M., Shehata, T. M., & Rao, R. (2026). Investigation of Nanosponge Based Delivery of Rutin and Brucine for Cancer Therapy. Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, 60(2s), s550-s562. https://doi.org/10.5530/ijper.20263680

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    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC BY 4.0