ABSTRACT
In recent decades, the anticancer effect of curcumin has been proven by several studies. Curcumin affects multiple cell signaling pathways and prevents cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis. However, the aqueous solubility of curcumin and its bioavailability are very low which restricts its anticancer properties. In this research, we have synthesized a monomethoxy poly [ethylene glycol]-Oleate [mPEGOA] di-block copolymer and used a surface PEGylated poly [amidoamine] [PAMAM] dendrimer to improve bioavailability of curcumin in cancer cells. The critical micelle concentration [CMC] of mPEG-OA, drug loading efficiencies, and cytotoxicity in the human glioblastoma cell line [U87MG] of all the prepared nanodevices were thoroughly investigated. Atomic force microscopy [AFM] and dynamic light scattering [DLS] studies have shown that mPEG-OA have two common nanostructures, micelles and polymerosomes. mPEG-OA micelles had a very low CMC [0.03 g/l]. The IC50 of free curcumin [0.01 methanol solution] was 48 microM, curcumin-loaded mPEG-OA was 24 microM, and curcumin-loaded PAMAM dendrimer was 13 microM. Moreover, the PEGylated PAMAM was non-cytotoxic. The results indicated that by using these nanocarriers, the bioavailability of curcumin significantly increased compared to free curcumin. Overall, this research revealed that these curcumin nanocarriers could be considered as appropriate drug delivery systems for curcumin delivery in cancer cells