Author(s):
Ashwini Patel, Prachi Pandey
Email(s):
patelashwini1987@gmail.com , prachipandey.ksp@kpgu.ac.in
DOI:
10.52711/0974-360X.2026.00125 
Address:
Ashwini Patel1,2*, Prachi Pandey2
1Research Scholar, Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad, India.
2Department of Pharmaceutics, Krishna School of Pharmacy and Research, Krishna Edu Campus, Drs. Kiran and Pallavi Patel Global University, Vadodara - Mumbai NH#8, Varnama, Vadodara – 391240. Gujarat, India.
*Corresponding Author
Published In:
Volume - 19,
Issue - 2,
Year - 2026
ABSTRACT:
Neurodegeneration is the leading cause for the development of brain-related disorders. A high level of oxidative stress is one of the reasons for the neurodegeneration. Edaravone (EDR) is a potent antioxidant that belongs to BCS class VI. Owing to low solubility and permeability and substrate of p-GP, EDR suffers from poor bioavailability. This research focused on the development of transferosomes as a potential delivery carrier system of EDR to target the brain. Transferosomes, being flexible vesicular formulations, demonstrated greater drug entrapment capacity. The EDR-entrapped transferosomes were incorporated into in-situ gel comprised of gellan gum for administration through nasal mucosa. The prepared nasal formulation showed less than 50 sec gelation time with 60% of in-vitro drug diffusion in one hour. The nasal permeation study on goat nasal mucosa depicted 55% of drug permeation in 22.184cm2/60 minutes. Results of histopathology study also confirmed its safety in nasal mucosa. A brain-targeting study was performed in comparison to marketed injections, which showed better drug distribution. The obtained Cmax and mean residence time were 61.975ng/ml and 267 minutes, respectively. These findings suggest the in-situ nasal gel formulation as an efficacious noninvasive method of administration of EDR for better patient suitability. This formulation can be further evaluated for clinical performance.
Cite this article:
Ashwini Patel, Prachi Pandey. Investigating the Potential of Brain Targeting of Edaravone through Transferosomes Embedded Intranasal Drug Delivery System: In-vitro and In- vivo Characterization. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 2026;19(2):879-7. doi: 10.52711/0974-360X.2026.00125
Cite(Electronic):
Ashwini Patel, Prachi Pandey. Investigating the Potential of Brain Targeting of Edaravone through Transferosomes Embedded Intranasal Drug Delivery System: In-vitro and In- vivo Characterization. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 2026;19(2):879-7. doi: 10.52711/0974-360X.2026.00125 Available on: https://rjptonline.org/AbstractView.aspx?PID=2026-19-2-54
REFERENCE:
1. Houldsworth A. Role of oxidative stress in neurodegenerative disorders: a review of reactive oxygen species and prevention by antioxidants. Brain Communications. 2024; 6(1): fcad356. https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad356
2. Valko M, Jomova K, Rhodes CJ, Kuča K, Musílek K. Redox-and non-redox-metal-induced formation of free radicals and their role in human disease. Archives of Toxicology. 2016; 90: 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-015-1579-5
3. Martínez Leo EE, Segura Campos MR. Systemic oxidative stress: a key point in neurodegeneration—a review. The journal of nutrition, health and aging. 2019; 23: 694-699. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-019-1240-8
4. Sawada H. Clinical efficacy of edaravone for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy. 2017; 18(7): 735-738. https://doi.org/10.1080/14656566.2017.1319937
5. Sun Z, Xu Q, Gao G, Zhao M, Sun C. Clinical observation in edaravone treatment for acute cerebral infarction. Nigerian Journal of Clinical practice. 2019; 22(10): 1324-1327. 10.4103/njcp.njcp_367_18
6. Divya A. Patel, Hasumati A. Raj, Vineet C. Jain. First derivative Spectroscopic Method for Simultaneous Estimation of Edaravone and Argatroban in synthetic mixture. Asian J. Res. Pharm. Sci. 2015; 5(1): 18-26. 10.5958/2231-5659.2015.00004.1
7. Parikh A, Kathawala K, Tan CC, Garg S, Zhou XF. Development of a novel oral delivery system of edaravone for enhancing bioavailability. International Journal of Pharmaceutics. 2016; 515(1-2): 490-500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2016.10.052
8. Yamamoto Y. Plasma marker of tissue oxidative damage and edaravone as a scavenger drug against peroxyl radicals and peroxynitrite. Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition. 2017; 60(1): 49-54. https://doi.org/10.3164/jcbn.16-63
9. Saudagar R. B., Sarika V. Khandbahale. In-Situ Nasal Gel- A Review. Asian J. Res. Pharm. Sci. 2017; 7(1): 23-32. 10.5958/2231-5659.2017.00005.4
10. Sarma A, Das MK, Chakraborty T, Das S. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs)-based intranasal Drug Delivery System of Tenofovir disoproxil fumerate (TDF) for brain targeting. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 2020; 13(11): 5411-24. 10.5958/0974-360X.2020.00946.4
11. Selvaraj K, Gowthamarajan K, Karri VV. Nose to brain transport pathways an overview: Potential of nanostructured lipid carriers in nose to brain targeting. Artificial cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology. 2018; 46(8): 2088-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/21691401.2017.1420073
12. Eid HM, Elkomy MH, El Menshawe SF, Salem HF. Transfersomal nanovesicles for nose-to-brain delivery of ofloxacin for better management of bacterial meningitis: Formulation, optimization by Box-Behnken design, Characterization and In vivo Pharmacokinetic Study. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology. 2019; 54: 101304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jddst.2019.101304
13. Rishabh Gupta, Manmohan Singhal, Nimisha. Transferosomes as an Efficient Carrier System for better Therapeutic response of Targeted Drug Delivery System. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 2022; 15(2): 913-920. 10.52711/0974-360X.2022.00153
14. Ahmed TA. Preparation of transfersomes encapsulating sildenafil aimed for transdermal drug delivery: Plackett–Burman design and characterization. Journal of Liposome Research. 2015; 25(1): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3109/08982104.2014.950276
15. Keller LA, Merkel O, Popp A. Intranasal drug delivery: opportunities and toxicologic challenges during drug development. Drug Delivery and Translational Research. 2022; 12: 735-757. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-020-00891-5
16. Shivani Choudhary, Pravin Kumar, Vinay Pandit, Mahendra Singh Ashawat. Mucoadhesive Insitu nasal Gel: A Promising Approach. Asian J. Res. Pharm. Sci. 2021; 11(1): 58-64. 10.5958/2231-5659.2021.00010.2
17. Scherließ R. Nasal formulations for drug administration and characterization of Nasal Preparations in Drug Delivery. Therapeutic Delivery. 2020; 11(3): 183-91. https://doi. org/10.4155/tde-2019-0086
18. Almuqbil RM, Sreeharsha N, Nair AB. Formulation-by-design of efinaconazole spanlastic nanovesicles for transungual delivery using statistical risk management and multivariate analytical techniques. Pharmaceutics. 2022; 14(7): 1419. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics14071419
19. Litvinova EV, Posylkina OV. Diagnosis of the main problems in the field of intellectual resources management in pharmacy. Management, Economy and Quality Assurance in Pharmacy. 2018; 1(53): 54-62. https://doi.org/10.24959/uekj.18.6
20. R. Nagaraju, U. Rajeswari, G. Ravi, P. Subhash Chandra Bose, Damineni Saritha. Development and in vitro Characterization of Intranasal Microemulsions of Sumatriptan Succinate for brain Targeting. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 2021; 14(4): 2062-2068. 10.52711/0974-360X.2021.00366
21. Phadtare DG, Gaika MN, Aher SS. Formulation and characterization of nanoemulsion based nasal spray of azelastine hydrochloride. Research Journal of Topical and Cosmetic Sciences. 2016; 7(2): 55.10.5958/2321-5844.2016.00009.1
22. Chen LC, Lin SY, Cheng WJ, Sheu MT, Chung CY, Hsu CH, Lin HL. Poloxamer sols endowed with in-situ gelability and mucoadhesion by adding hypromellose and hyaluronan for prolonging corneal retention and drug delivery. Drug Delivery. 2023; 30(1): 2158964. https://doi.org/10.1080/10717544.2022.2158964
23. Ahmed TA, Badr-Eldin SM, Ahmed OA, Aldawsari H. Intranasal optimized solid lipid nanoparticles loaded in situ gel for enhancing trans-mucosal delivery of simvastatin. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology. 2018; 48: 499-508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jddst.2018.10.027
24. Rajput A, Bariya A, Allam A, Othman S, Butani SB. In situ nanostructured hydrogel of resveratrol for brain targeting: in vitro-in vivo characterization. Drug Delivery and Translational Research. 2018; 8: 1460-1470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-018-0540-6
25. Miatmoko A, Marufah NA, Nada Q, Rosita N, Erawati T, Susanto J, Purwantari KE, Nurkanto A, Purwati, Soeratri W. The effect of surfactant type on characteristics, skin penetration and anti-aging effectiveness of transfersomes containing amniotic mesenchymal stem cells metabolite products in UV-aging induced mice. Drug delivery. 2022; 29(1): 3443-3453. https://doi.org/10.1080/10717544.2022.2149895
26. Torres-Flores G, Gonzalez-Horta A, Vega-Cantu YI, Rodriguez C, Rodriguez-Garcia A. Preparation and Characterization of Liposomal Everolimus by Thin‐Film Hydration Technique. Advances in Polymer Technology. 2020; 1: 5462949. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5462949
27. Balata GF, Faisal MM, Elghamry HA, Sabry SA. Preparation and characterization of ivabradine HCl transfersomes for enhanced transdermal delivery. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology. 2020; 60: 101921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jddst.2020.101921
28. Salatin S, Barar J, Barzegar-Jalali M, Adibkia K, Milani MA, Jelvehgari M. Hydrogel nanoparticles and nanocomposites for nasal drug/vaccine delivery. Archives of Pharmacal Research. 2016; 39: 1181-1192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-016-0782-0
29. Syed Saif Imam. Sublingual Tablets Amalgamated with Nano-particles and natural products to treat Oral Cancer. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 2024; 17(5): 2056-2.
30. Omar MM, Hasan OA, El Sisi AM. Preparation and optimization of lidocaine transferosomal gel containing permeation enhancers: a promising approach for enhancement of skin permeation. International Journal of Nanomedicine. 2019; 14: 1551-1562. https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S201356
31. Guillot AJ, Martínez-Navarrete M, Garrigues TM, Melero A. Skin drug delivery using lipid vesicles: A starting guideline for their development. Journal of Controlled Release. 2023; 355: 624-654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2023.02.006