Biosynthesis of rutin trihydrate loaded silica nanoparticles and investigation of its antioxidant, antidiabetic and cytotoxic potentials

In the current study, customized SiNPs were synthesized using an adapted Stöber process and functionalized with silane for the loading of phytocompound rutin trihydrate (RU) for delivery application. The average size of SiNPs was around 60–120 nm through TEM and spherical surface morphology was visualized through SEM. Various spectral analyses like UV–Vis spectra, FTIR, and Raman spectra revealed that the surfactant CTAB used for the synthesis of SiNPs, was completely removed from SiNPs, silane was functionalized, moreover, RU was loaded successfully with a loading efficiency of ~ 12%. In-silico studies were performed taking into consideration the binding affinities of different molecules involved in RU-loaded SiNPs through molecular docking. The antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities were evaluated for both RU-loaded SiNPs and native RU, where the former was found to be promising even at lower concentrations in comparison to later. The cell viability assay performed using Mouse macrophages RAW 264.7 cells was found to be non-toxic up to 100 μg/ml of RU-loaded SiNPs. The above results confirmed that the synthesized SiNPs are structurally, electrochemically, and thermally stable, and RU-loaded SiNPs was non-toxic and biocompatible in nature, hoping that this system can be an ideal drug delivery platform for RU in near future.