Improved Anti-nociceptive, Anti-pyretic and Anti-inflammatory Effects of Orally Administered Liposome-encapsulated Piroxicam
HS Chiong1, YK Yong2, MS Mohd Hijaz1, MR Sulaiman1 , KH Yuen3 and MN Hakim1,4,5*

1Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 2Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 3Discipline of Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden, Penang, Malaysia. 4Halal Product Research Institute, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 5Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia..

Abstract: Piroxicam, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, has been shown with low oral bioavailability and delayed onset of its therapeutic effects. In this work, a promising nano/liposomal drug delivery system was exploited to improve the in vivo therapeutic efficacies of piroxicam. The current liposome-encapsulated piroxicam formulation effectively boosted and prolonged peripherally mediated anti-nociceptive activities in tests for abdominal writhing induced by acetic acid (inhibition of pain 70.19% was in mice treated with 30 mg/kg liposome-encapsulated piroxicam), paw licking induced by formalin (81.36% inhibition when compared to free unencapsulated piroxicam), and hyperalgesia induced by carrageenan (55.8% inhibition when compared to free unencapsulated piroxicam). Even lower dose of liposomes-encapsulated piroxicam was also significantly inhibit Brewer’s yeast-induced hyperthermia. Carrageenan-induced paw-edema test and cotton pellet-induced granuloma test revealed that liposomes-encapsulated piroxicam had significantly more potent acute and chronic anti-inflammatory effects than piroxicam, even if lower drug dosages were used to treat animals. A better modulation in the generation of inflammatory mediators (nitric oxide, tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, and interleukin-10) at 18.02% (TNFa), 23.97% (IL-1β) and 10.27% (IL-10) inhibition when compared to 30mg/kg free piroxicam group respectively. was ascribed to the higher in vivo therapeutic actions. Present nano-encapsulated piroxicam also significantly enhanced the inhibition of cyclooxgenase-2 (total percentage inhibition was increased by 18.25% and 19.22% at drug dosage of 3 and 30 mg/kg, respectively), but not cyclooxgenase-1 enzyme. In conclusion, present study showed that liposomal drug formulation was able to improve the in vivo therapeutic effects of orally administered piroxicam.

Keywords: Anti-inflammation; Anti-nociceptive; Anti-pyretic; Liposome; Piroxicam

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