Sonication-Assisted Synthesis of Polyelectrolyte-Coated Curcumin Nanoparticles

Abstract

A new method of nanoparticle formulation for low water-soluble materials was demonstrated on the example of curcumin. The drug was dissolved in organic solvent that is miscible with water (ethanol) and drug nucleation was initiated by gradual worsening the solution with addition of aqueous polyelectrolyte assisted by ultrasonication. Curcumin crystals of 60-100 nm size were obtained depending on the component concentrations, sonication power, and an initial solvent. A layer-bylayer shell assembly with biocompatible polyelectrolytes was used to provide particle coating with high surface potential and stabilization of drug nanocolloids. Polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer encapsulation allowed sustained drug release from nanoparticles over the range of 10-20 hours.Many anticancer drugs are poorly soluble in water (curcumin, paclitaxel, tamoxifen, etc). Currently there is no established nanoscale delivery system for the continuous slow release of such drugs other than micelles, although micelles contain a very small percentage of the desired drugs 1-3 . Other approaches for drug nanoformulation include ultrasonicated decomposition of drug powder 4 and drug loading to polymeric (often gelatin or polysaccharide) coacervates [5][6][7][8] . For such formulations, a usual size of drug carriers is 200-300 nm, which is not small enough for the most efficient medical applications.Natural polyphenolic compounds are interesting as substances with variety of biological activity. High antioxidant, antiviral, and anticancer activities have been proven for plant extracts and polymeric tannins including their isolated individual compounds (such as curcumin) [9][10][11][12] . In this paper we describe a new approach for the preparation of drug nanocolloids with diameters less than 100 nm which is based on sonication assisted nucleation of drug particles from their solutions in organic solvents. An aggregation of the formed nanoparticles was avoided by polycation adsorption onto particles followed by the polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer (LbL) nanoshell formation [13][14][15][16][17][18] . The following procedure was used for formation stable curcumin nanocolloids through controlled crystallization initiated by worsening saturated curcumin alcohol solutions (Scheme 1). Curcumin powder was dissolved in 60 % ethanol / water solution (curcumin was obtained from Sabinsa and all other chemicals were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich). After curcumin been completely dissolved, we added aqueous polycations, poly(allylamine hydrochloride), PAH, or biodegradable protomine sulfate, (PS) and started ultrasonication with UIP1000, Hielscher instrument, at 100 Wt per mL of solution. During the sonication, water was slowly added into the solution. Because of the adding water, solvent becomes more polar, causing decrease of curcumin solubility, and Correspondence to: Yuri Lvov, ylvov@latech.edu. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptLangmuir. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 June 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author M...

Curcumin-Eudragit® E PO solid dispersion: A simple and potent method to solve the problems of curcumin

“…S1). 351 This observation was in line with previous studies [26,33]. In the preliminary experiments, we loaded different amounts of 384 curcumin into Eudragit Ò E PO with the weight ratio varying from 385 4%, 8%, 12%, 16%, 20% and 24% w/w.…”

“…In fact, the size determined by TEM was also smal-419 ler than previous result [27]. Moreover, the curcumin nanoparti-420 cles showed smooth round shape which was also a little different 421 from the previous description as 'rectangularly shaped' [26]. The Table 1) and was speculated as cur- formulation.…”

“…The size 415 was below 10 nm which was much smaller than that of DLS mea-416 surement ( Table 1). This was a common phenomenon and was 417 attributed to hydration of the surface of nanoparticles by water 418 molecules [26]. In fact, the size determined by TEM was also smal-419 ler than previous result [27].…”

Layer-by-layer engineered nanocapsules of curcumin with improved cell activity

“…In our case, it is possible that the release profile of curcumin loaded hollow nanocapsules is primarily controlled by the diffusion-control mechanism, as a result of partitioning between the film matrix and surrounding aqueous medium. Our results are consistent with other studies showing that the release of curcumin from multilayer particles can be effectively controlled by diffusion mechanisms (Zheng et al, 2010). In addition, it should be noted that the stability of curcumin during the release study would play a role on the released quantity of curcumin.…”

Design Advances in Particulate Systems for Biomedical Applications

“…Release systems: Cancer therapeutics [ 194 ] Polystyrene and silica Poly L -glutamic acid poly L -lysine Solid and hollow…”