PGMD/curcumin nanoparticles for the treatment of breast cancer.

ABSTRACT

The present study aims at developing PGMD (poly-glycerol-malic acid-dodecanedioic acid)/curcumin nanoparticles based formulation for anticancer activity against breast cancer cells. The nanoparticles were prepared using both the variants of PGMD polymer (PGMD 73 and PGMD 64) with curcumin (i.e. CUR NP 73 and CUR NP 64). The size of CUR NP 73 and CUR NP 64 were found to be ~ 110 and 218 nm with a polydispersity index of 0.174 and 0.36, respectively. Further, the zeta potential of the particles was - 18.9 and - 17.5 mV for CUR NP 73 and CUR NP 64, respectively. The entrapment efficiency of both the nanoparticles was in the range of 75-81%. In vitro anticancer activity and the scratch assay were conducted on breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. The IC50 of the nanoformulations was observed to be 40.2 and 33.6 µM at 48 h for CUR NP 73 and CUR NP 64, respectively, in MCF-7 cell line; for MDA-MB-231 it was 43.4 and 30.5 µM. Acridine orange/EtBr and DAPI staining assays showed apoptotic features and nuclear anomalies in the treated cells. This was further confirmed by western blot analysis that showed overexpression of caspase 9 indicating curcumin role in apoptosis.