Advanced Drug Delivery Systems of Curcumin for Cancer Chemoprevention

Abstract

From ancient times, chemopreventive agents have been used to treat/prevent several diseases, including cancer. They are found to elicit a spectrum of potent responses including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-proliferative, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-angiogenic activity in various cell culture and some animal studies. Research over the past four decades has shown that chemopreventives affect a number of proteins involved in various molecular pathways that regulate inflammatory and carcinogenic responses in a cell. Various enzymes, transcription factors, receptors, and adhesion proteins are also affected by chemopreventives. Although, these natural compounds have shown significant efficacy in cell-culture studies, they elicited limited efficacy in various clinical studies. Their introduction into the clinical setting is hindered largely by their poor solubility, rapid metabolism, or a combination of both, ultimately resulting in poor bioavailability upon oral administration. Therefore, to circumvent these limitations and to ease their transition to clinics, alternate strategies should be explored. Drug delivery systems such as nanoparticles, liposomes, microemulsions, and polymeric implantable devices are emerging as one of the viable alternatives that have been demonstrated to deliver therapeutic concentrations of various potent chemopreventives such as curcumin, ellagic acid, green tea polyphenols, and resveratrol into the systemic circulation. In this review article, we have attempted to provide a comprehensive outlook for these delivery approaches, using curcumin as a model agent, and discussed future strategies to enable the introduction of these highly potent chemopreventives into a physician’s armamentarium.

Bacterial polyhydroxyalkanoates-eco-friendly next generation plastic: Production, biocompatibility, biodegradation, physical properties and applications

“…PHAs are also useful as stereoregular compounds which can serve as chiral precursors for the chemical synthesis of optically active compounds (32,254). Such compounds are particularly used to synthesize the micro-and nanosphere of PHAs as biodegradable carriers or drug delivery systems for controlled release of therapeutics such as medicines, hormones, insecticides and herbicides into systemic circulation are receiving attention (30,31,253,255,256). According to Sudesh et al, PHAs have the oil absorption and retention capacities which offer commercial application value in the cosmetics and skin care industries (257).…”

Interaction of curcumin nanoformulations with human plasma proteins and erythrocytes

“…[11][12][13] Because of its hydrophobic nature and poor bioavailability, the clinical development of curcumin as a "medicine" is dependent upon developing a nanocarrier for efficient transport in the body. 12,14,15 Recently, several curcumin nanoformulations, such as polymer nanoparticles, selfassemblies, nanocrystal dispersions, nanoemulsions, lipid nanoparticles, and protein-based drug delivery systems, have shown improved solubility, stability, and bioavailability of the curcumin molecule. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Moreover, curcumin nanoformulations have demonstrated improved cellular uptake in cancer models that increases the chance of a positive therapeutic outcome.…”

Immunomodulation of Curcumin on Adoptive Therapy with T Cell Functional Imaging in Mice

“…After intraperitoneal administration of 0.1 g/kg, the plasma level peaked (2.25 mg/mL) at 15 minutes and declined rapidly within 1 hour (36). To avoid the low bioavailability of curcumin for the clinical application, various advanced drug delivery systems, such as nanoparticles, liposomes, nanoemulsions, and the combination of the adjuvants have been designed, but their biopharmaceutical attributes need to be further validated (35,37). In our E.G7/OT-1 animal model, we found that the critical time for T-cell activation is the first 3 days after adoptive therapy.…”