Synthesis, Characterization and In Vitro Study of Curcumin-Functionalized Citric Acid-Capped Magnetic (CCF) Nanoparticles as Drug Delivery Agents in Cancer

摘要

Curcumin, a naturally occurring polyphenol extracted from turmeric (Curcuma longa), an indispensable culinary spice in Indian diet, has been known to function as a potent anticancer agent. However, its limited solubility and absorption into body tissues limits its bioavailability. Magnetic nanoparticles, typically Fe_3O_4, have been shown to possess various biomedical applications including hyperthermia, MRI, magnetic separation and targeted drug delivery. In the present paper, we report the synthesis of a highly aqueous stable suspension of citric acid (CA) capped iron oxide (Fe_3O_4) nanoparticles conjugated to curcumin (CU). The significance of this report lies in the use of citric acid as a capping agent for magnetic nanoparticles in combination with curcumin. Citric acid has been mainly used to overcome the problem of limited bioavailability of curcumin as well as to impart ferrofluid property to the nanoparticles. The Curcumin-Citric acid-Fe_30_4 nanoparticles (CCF) were duly characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and conjugated nanoparticles were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The percent drug loading was evaluated by thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). CCF nanoparticles were studied in vitro to determine whether the cur-cumin retained its anticancer activity after conjugation with citric acid capped nanoparticles. In vitro uptake of CCF nanoparticles into breast cancer cell line, MCF7, was confirmed by Prussian blue staining. MIT assay was performed to determine cytotoxicity of the nanoparticles towards MCF7. Growth assays proved that the anticancer activity of curcumin was retained even after conjugation with CA.