Authors Ghosh A, Banerjee T, Bhandary S, Surolia A
Published Date November 2014 Volume 2014:9(1) Pages 5373—5387
DOI dovepress.com
Received 20 February 2014, Accepted 24 May 2014, Published 20 November 2014
Aparajita Ghosh,1 Tanushree Banerjee,2 Suman Bhandary,1 Avadhesha Surolia3
1Division of Molecular Medicine, Bose Institute, Centenary Campus, Kolkata, West Bengal, India; 2Department of Biotechnology, University of Pune, Pune, India; 3Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Aim: The present study was conducted to overcome the disadvantages associated with the poor water solubility and low bioavailability of curcumin by synthesizing nanotized curcumin and demonstrating its efficacy in treating malaria.
Materials and methods: Nanotized curcumin was prepared by a modified emulsion-diffusion-evaporation method and was characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering, Zetasizer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and differential thermal analysis. The novelty of the prepared nanoformulation lies in the fact that it was devoid of any polymeric matrices used in conventional carriers. The antimalarial efficacy of the prepared nanotized curcumin was then checked both in vitro and in vivo.
Results: The nanopreparation was found to be non-toxic and had a particle size distribution of 20–50 nm along with improved aqueous dispersibility and an entrapment efficiency of 45%. Nanotized curcumin (half maximal inhibitory concentration [IC50]: 0.5 µM) was also found to be ten-fold more effective for growth inhibition of Plasmodium falciparumin vitro as compared to its native counterpart (IC50: 5 µM). Oral bioavailability of nanotized curcumin was found to be superior to that of its native counterpart. Moreover, when Plasmodium berghei-infected mice were orally treated with nanotized curcumin, it prolonged their survival by more than 2 months with complete clearance of parasites in comparison to the untreated animals, which survived for 8 days only.
Conclusion: Nanotized curcumin holds a considerable promise in therapeutics as demonstrated here for treating malaria as a test system.
Keywords: curcumin, nanotized curcumin, P. berghei, P. falciparum, antimalarial
Download Article [PDF]
dovepress.com
