The current study was intended to fabricate and evaluate ultrasonically assisted quercetin nanoemulsion (Que-NE) for improved bioavailability and therapeutic effectiveness against diabetes mellitus in rats. Ethyl oleate, Tween 20, and Labrasol were chosen as oil, surfactant, and cosurfactant, respectively. Box–Behnken design (BBD) was employed to study the influence of process variables such as % surfactant and cosurfactant mixture (Smix) (5 to 7%), % amplitude (20–30%) and sonication time (2.5–7.5 min) on droplet size, polydispersibility index (PDI), and % entrapment efficiency (%EE) were studied. The optimization predicted that 9% Smix at 25% amplitude for 2.5 min would produce Que-NE with a droplet size of 125.51 nm, 0.215 PDI, and 87.04% EE. Moreover, the optimized Que-NE exhibited appreciable droplet size and PDI when stored at 5, 30, and 40 °C for 45 days. Also, the morphological characterization by transmission electron microscope (TEM) indicated the spherical shape of the optimized nanoemulsion. Furthermore, the Que-NE compared to pure quercetin exhibited superior release and enhanced oral bioavailability. The streptozocin-induced antidiabetic study in rats revealed that the Que-NE had remarkable protective and therapeutic properties in managing body weight, blood glucose level, lipid profile, and tissue injury markers, alongside the structure of pancreatic β-cells and hepatocytes being protected. Thus, the developed Que-NE could be of potential use as a substitute strategy for diabetes.
The present study involves the integrated network pharmacology and phytoinformatics-based investigation of phytocompounds from Ocimum tenuiflorum against diabetes mellitus-linked Alzheimer’s disease. It aims to investigate the mechanism of the Ocimum tenuiflorum phytocompounds in the amelioration of diabetes mellitus-linked Alzheimer’s disease through network pharmacology, druglikeness and pharmacokinetics, molecular docking simulations, GO analysis, molecular dynamics simulations, and binding free energy analyses. A total of 14 predicted genes of the 26 orally bioactive compounds were identified. Among these 14 genes, GAPDH and AKT1 were the most significant. The network analysis revealed the AGE-RAGE signaling pathway to be a prominent pathway linked to GAPDH with 50.53% probability. Upon the molecular docking simulation with GAPDH, isoeugenol was found to possess the most significant binding affinity (−6.0 kcal/mol). The molecular dynamics simulation and binding free energy calculation results also predicted that isoeugenol forms a stable protein–ligand complex with GAPDH, where the phytocompound is predicted to chiefly use van der Waal’s binding energy (−159.277 kj/mol). On the basis of these results, it can be concluded that isoeugenol from Ocimum tenuiflorum could be taken for further in vitro and in vivo analysis, targeting GAPDH inhibition for the amelioration of diabetes mellitus-linked Alzheimer’s disease.
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