Curcumin loaded zinc oxide nanoparticles for activity-enhanced antibacterial and anticancer applications.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles and curcumin have been shown to be excellent antimicrobial agents and promising anticancer agents, both on their own as well as in combination. Together, they have potential as alternatives/supplements to antibiotics and traditional anticancer drugs. In this study, different morphologies of zinc oxide-grafted curcumin nanocomposites (ZNP-Cs) were synthesized and characterized using SEM, TGA, FTIR, XRD and UV-vis spectrophotometry. Antimicrobial assays were conducted against both Gram negative and Gram-positive bacterial stains. Spherical ZnO-curcumin nanoparticles (SZNP-Cs) and rod-shaped ZnO-curcumin nanoparticles showed the most promising activity against tested bacterial strains. The inhibition zones for these curcumin-loaded ZnO nanocomposites were consistently larger than their bare counterparts or pure curcumin, revealing an additve effect between the ZnO and curcumin components. The potential anticancer activity of the synthesized nanocomposites was studied on the rhabdomyosarcoma RD cell line via MTT assay, while their cytotoxic effects were tested against human embryonic kidney cells using the resazurin assay. SZNP-Cs exhibited the best balance between the two, showing the lowest toxicity against healthy cells and good anticancer activity. The results of this investigation demonstrate that the nanomatrix synthesized can act as an effective, additively-enhanced combination delivery/therapeutic agent, holding promise for anticancer therapy and other biomedical applications.

Enhanced cell functions on graphene oxide incorporated 3D printed polycaprolactone scaffolds.

For tissue engineering applications, a porous scaffold with an interconnected network is essential to facilitate the cell attachment and proliferation in a three dimensional (3D) structure. This study aimed to fabricate the scaffolds by an extrusion-based 3D printer using a blend of polycaprolactone (PCL), and graphene oxide (GO) as a favorable platform for bone tissue engineering. The mechanical properties, morphology, biocompatibility, and biological activities such as cell proliferation and differentiation were studied concerning the two different pore sizes; 400 µm, and 800 µm, and also with two different GO content; 0.1% (w/w) and 0.5% (w/w). The compressive strength of the scaffolds was not significantly changed due to the small amount of GO, but, as expected scaffolds with 400 µm pores showed a higher compressive modulus in comparison to the scaffolds with 800 µm pores. The data indicated that the cell attachment and proliferation were increased by adding a small amount of GO. According to the results, pore size did not play a significant role in cell proliferation and differentiation. Alkaline Phosphate (ALP) activity assay further confirmed that the GO increase the ALP activity and further Elemental analysis of Calcium and Phosphorous showed that the GO increased the mineralization compared to PCL only scaffolds. Western blot analysis showed the porous structure facilitate the secretion of bone morphogenic protein-2 (BMP-2) and osteopontin at both day 7 and 14 which galvanizes the osteogenic capability of PCL and PCL + GO scaffolds.